A wand, a werewolf and a demon girl
by Mist of Rainbows
Summary: Further adventures of the Scoobies magical children. Buffy/Harry Potter cross
1. A werewolf on the Hogwarts Express

I don't own any character that is owned by another author. I make no money on this.

Leo Angel Potter glanced around the train compartment with a growing sense of dread. He had promised his mom that he would look after the others, not that he thought they needed looking after but as he was their big brother, Faith felt that it somehow fell to him to look after them. While normally he did this as a matter of course a passing glance at his reflection in the window reminded him that he was going to have his own problems to worry about. He was a bit taller than his own father had been in his first year but there was enough of a resemblance to his father that even if he hadn't borne the Potter family name it would still have caused him issues. He smiled as he remembered his mother's words, 'If any of the Slytherins give you trouble hex them when no one is looking or challenge them to a duel and obliterate them.' He sighed, he wished it was that easy. In an effort to take his mind off his worries he glanced around at his siblings.

Gabrielle Rosenberg and Rose Summers were sitting near the door on the opposite side of the twins bent over a chess board trying unsuccessfully to tune out Lenora and Lillian Granger's enthusiastic discussion of their book, Hogwarts a history.

Leo frowned as the girl's continued the same discussion that they had been having for the last several hours as they were getting ready to get on the train. "Can't you give that book a rest?"

Lillian shook her head, "Why should I? It's good to be prepared."

William rolled his eyes as he watched his friend retreat from the twin's glares.

Lenora opened her mouth to respond but was interrupted by the door to the train compartment sliding open. She glanced over as a small shabbily dressed girl stepped into the compartment. While Lenora wasn't the tallest witch around even she was a bit larger than the pale scarecrow of a girl that was standing there looking rather nervous. It almost looked as if she had been crying. She looked so nervous in fact that Lenora was half afraid she was going to collapse.

Trista screwed the last of her courage together as her eyes flickered around the room and took in the nice clothes the other children wore. It gave her a small flicker of hope that they were at least wearing muggle clothes. "Do you mind if I stay here, the rest of the compartments are full?"

William decided that the girl needed a break, he shrugged and glanced around at the mostly full compartment, "I guess there is room for one more."'

Gabrielle sniffed the air curiously, then rubbed at her nose to cover the odd mannerism.

Rose had just finished clearing the chessboard of pieces so the new girl would have a place to sit when the door slid open once again.

William looked over at the three stooges that filled the door way. He wasn't relishing this confrontation without his parents around but he wasn't going to back down just because the people looming in the doorway were so very much larger than he was. "What do you want?"

Draco Malfoy smirked at the people in the room. Trista backed up fearfully until she bumped against the wall as far from the door as she could get. His grin got wider, he was enjoying tormenting the little mud blood bitch. "You should learn to talk politely to your betters. You look suspiciously like a Weasley, red hair, no sense of style, yep have to be a Weasley. Merlin, how many of them are there?"

Leo was busy trying not to draw attention to himself. Goyle grinned stupidly and pointed at Leo even as he pulled at Malfoy's sleeve. Malfoy shook his arm out of Goyles grasp without even looking at him.

Gabrielle scowled up at Malfoy before standing up and sidestepping to better block his access to the scared girl. "Spit it out then and get out of here."

"I don't believe I got your name…"

"Not that it's any of your business but it's Rosenberg."

"I see, so a filthy little mudblood bitch like yourself is going to protect the werewolf bitch." He gestured rudely at Trista while laughing darkly.

Trista started to cry again as Malfoy laughed at her.

Rose put a restraining hand on Gabrielle's arm as Gabrielle tensed up. "It's not worth getting into trouble over." She turned to look at Malfoy and shook her head, "If you had any hint of self preservation you would run screaming right about now."

Gabrielle's voice took on a frosty tone, "My father was a wizard, his parents were magical, my mother was a witch, which is more than I can say for your fucked up hack of a half blood leader."

Malfoy glared at the mere girl that had dared insult the dark lord, he went for his wand. His hand made it about half way there before he was hit with a barrage of stunners from the other people in the room. Crabbe and Goyle collapsed as well having been hit by the spill over.

Rose shook her head before looking at Trista, "He was reaching for his wand."

Gabrielle looked down at the bodies and smiled grimly, "I'll get rid of them."

Lillian frowned, "While I'm sure you could move the bodies without help if we let you, they might end up tossed off the train while it's moving."

Gabrielle shrugged, "You ruin all my fun, besides they're wizards, not muggles they would probably survive the fall." She pulled her wand out from it's sheath on her arm. With a flick and a swish she levitated Malfoy's body up and proceeded to smash his head into the door jam. "Opps." She smiled, as she walked the body outside.

A flick of her wand and Goyle was sliding by his feet out the door. His head merrily bouncing along. "Lenora don't suppose you can help me with the other fat one?"

She nodded, "If I must, I must." With a flick of her wrist Crabbe's feet levitated up and dragged the unconscious Slytherin out of the compartment.

Trista glanced nervously at the compartment door, "I'll just, just go…"

Leo frowned, "Why because of what Malfoy said?"

William shook his head, "The guy is a git."

"But, he is right I am a werewolf."

Rose shrugged, "There are worse things you could be."

Trista wiped her nose on her sleeve even as she blinked rapidly trying to get the tears to stop. "Like what?"

William chuckled, "A pompous idiot. Names, William Weasley. My shy friend over there is Leo Potter, and the girl is Rose Summers."

Rose inclined her head, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Trista was staring at the people in shock, "Aren't you worried about me eating you, or something?"

Rose shrugged, "Not really being that you're the second werewolf I've met and the other one is a good friend and even then most werewolves only go crazy around the full moon, and as that is still a ways away, I don't really see what we have to worry about."

Trista frowned, "You're serious?"

William nodded, "Why wouldn't we be?"

She shrugged, "I don't know, it's just that a few months ago I didn't even know that magic was real let alone that werewolves were. I didn't find out about magic until I got my Hogwarts' letter."

Gabrielle glided back into the compartment followed by the twins. "Well at least the trash is taken out, though I do fear we have made some enemies today. I'm sorry where are my manors, I'm Gabrielle Rosenberg, the twins are Lenora and Lillian Granger." She gestured to each one in turn. "The fact that Lenora wears pig tails is about the only way to tell them apart."

Lillian rolled her eyes, "We aren't that identical."

Leo chuckled, "Speak for yourselves, you're worse than Fred and George and their own mother can't tell them apart half the time."

Lenora stage whispered to Trista, "That's because she doesn't try anymore."

Leo glanced at the door nervously for a second as it opened before realizing that it was just the trolley lady.

"Would you like anything dears?"

Trista shook her head, "Sorry don't have any money."

Gabrielle frowned, "Well that just won't do, I'll take seven of your largest chocolate bars please."

Rose shook her head at Trista's protesting, "Don't worry about it, she can well afford it."

Trista nodded, "You all seem to know each other already…"

Leo shrugged and gestured to William, "Yeah this lug here's my dad's best friend's kid. So as you can well imagine we have spent a great deal of time together."

Lenora smiled, "Well obviously my twin is related to me. As for the rest of the scallywags ours parents were all friends from Hogwarts."

Gabrielle smiled as she put her change away and passed out the large chocolate bars before sitting back in her corner, "We still have several hours of a train ride, so we might as well get as comfortable as we can."

Rose smiled and walked over to the door and whispered a locking spell over it. "I don't really want any interruptions from the three idiots just incase they decide to cause trouble."

Trista frowned, "How far behind am I being muggle?"

Lillian shrugged, "Only a little bit, most magical children brought up in a magical household only hear spells and incantations but never get the chance to practice them. We might have practiced a few spells here and there."

Trista nodded, "I looked at some of my books before…" She tensed up. "Before I got attacked this summer. Afterwards… I wasn't even sure I wanted to come here."

Lenora's face blanched white, "It's scary isn't it."

"The magic police said that it was a werewolf in league with you know who. Said that there had been a number of muggle born killed this summer. They got really weird when Daddy asked who you know who was."

Gabrielle sighed, "People don't like saying Voldemort's name."

William twitched, "Can you please not say that."

She shrugged, "See what I mean."

"After one particularly brutal transformation my parents decided that maybe Hogwarts would be the best place for me after all… I can't say as I blame them. There is supposed to be a potion that can help with the transformations but it's… well it's rather expensive you see… Dumbledore said that the school would provide the potion at no cost to my parents while I went to school." She gestured to her plain clothes, "We don't exactly have enough money to waste on something that isn't really a cure…"

William nodded, "I can relate to the not having a lot of money thing. My father grew up poor, though he makes enough to get by now."

Rose frowned, "Okay enough with the doom and gloom. There has to be a good topic of conversation buried around here somewhere."

Gabrielle forced herself to smile as she realized Rose was right and that a number of people in the compartment needed a change of topic, "I know Quidditch, we could tell her the rules of that."

"What's Quidditch?"

Gabrielle smiled brightly, "Only the second best game ever, you play it on broomsticks while flying around the air."

Trista turned and looked at Rose, "Do I want to ask her what the best game in the world is?"

"I've found that there are some questions better left unasked and unanswered."


	2. Sorting hat is evil

Gabrielle took a deep breath of fresh air as she stepped off the train. "Smells nice, reminds me of home."

Lillian shook her head, "It smells like a forest, how is that anything like home?"

"Don't know, just is." Gabrielle ignored her sister's raised eyebrows. "We should figure out where we are supposed to go. I remember dad saying that as first years we didn't ride in the carriages like the rest of the students."

Trista frowned, "What about our luggage?"

Leo smiled, "Don't worry the house elves will make sure it gets up to our rooms."

"House elves?"

"Little elves that do the day to day chores around the school and in certain wizarding families."

Trista blinked and pointed off in the distance, "Is… is that a giant?"

Gabrielle smiled as she saw a slightly out of breath Rubeus Hagrid hurrying out of the woods. "He is only part giant. My dad mentioned him a few times."

Hagrid's voice carried over the mass of talking children, "First years, follow me please."

Gabrielle smiled, "Don't worry he is a big softy."

Trista sighed, "If you say so." She found her frown slipping as she followed the bubbly group of children she had just met down toward the base of a lake. The laughter in their voices and the feeling of carelessness about them helped put her at ease. She even found a smile for the numerous boats parked on the edge of the water.

Gabrielle chuckled as Leo and William grabbed Rose and Lillian and got into a boat.

Lenora smiled, "I guess that leaves us a boat by ourselves."

Gabrielle glanced around as all of the other students were stepping cautiously into their own boats. "I guess."

Everyone had just barely settled when Hagrid waved at the boats and they gracefully pulled away from the shore.

Harry smiled from his spot on the carriage as he watched his children head off toward the lake. "Looks like they picked up a friend."

Hermione chuckled, "See I told you it was important to stick with the traditional train ride rather than arrange alternate means of arriving."

Ron shrugged, "I still think I'm crazy for wanting to go back to school with you nutters."

Ginny chuckled, "You just wanted to avoid most of Alexia's second pregnancy."

Harry grinned at his wife, "That's a horrible thing to say about your dear old brother."

Hermione snickered, "Even if it is true."

Ron sighed, "Laugh it up, I'm not immortal like you goons. Your broken fingers heal when emotionally neurotic slayers squeeze too tight, unlike mine." He flexed his fingers unconsciously.

Ginny grinned, "Hey, thanks to you I got a lot of practice with healing charms that first time around."

Hermione glared at Ron. "So you're saying that all slayers are emotionally unstable?"

Harry snickered, "It's a trap, don't answer."

Hermione smiled as she shook her finger at Harry, "You stay out of it."

Ron grinned even as he worked to change the subject. He was glad that only his best friends were in the carriage with him, it made his next question possible to ask, "Of course not Hermione. So do you think we can act like the sixteen year old children we are supposed to be?"

Harry ran his hand through his shoulder length hair, growing it out was the only thing other than copious amounts of magical hair gel that seemed to do anything in the way of calming it down. "Instead of the late twenty something adults we are? Probably as long as you keep your charmed necklace on."

"I don't exactly have a choice now do I? I'm still bitter that you got Willow to use magic on Ginny to extend her youth and life."

Harry chuckled, "You're just mad cause when you asked for the same thing she said there wasn't enough magic in the world to make you cute and young."

"I know I should be happy that she taught me enough magic so I can keep myself healthy over the years. She seemed to think it was a character building experience."

Hermione nodded, "It is a character building experience."

Harry taking pity on Ron changed the subject for him, "So what are we doing about Snape and Malfoy this year?"

Hermione shrugged, "Nothing, unless they give us proof, we can't really go to the ministry with just your opinions."

Harry scowled, "I know, doesn't mean I have to like it."

Ron shrugged, "Hey it's just points."

Ginny blinked, "Okay what did you do with the real Ronald Weasley?"

"Nothing, but after all the demon hunting I've done the last decade with Alexia I refuse to worry about a few house points, besides Dumbledore always gives us points at the end of the year for saving the day."

Ginny chuckled, "Good to know that some things don't change."

Ron grinned, "Speaking of things that don't change the feast should start in a bit."

Hermione chuckled, "Only after the sorting is finished."

"Any guesses?"

Harry sighed, "Not really, I'm hoping for Gryffindor and Ravenclaw."

Hermione nodded, "Nothing wrong with Hufflepuff besides it doesn't matter what house they end up in. It's not like I'd disown my children if they ended up in Slytherin."

Ron shook his head, "I would."

Ginny laughed, "I don't think you have anything to worry about with William."

Ginny shrugged, "Let's get to the feast and find out."

Gabrielle found herself standing in line with a bunch of other nervous first years as professor McGonagall called the students one by one. She had only listened to half the sorting hat in her nervousness. She didn't want to admit it to anyone but she was slightly concerned about which house she would end up in. She admitted to herself that she had dreams that people might call ambitious, that she had a dark side when it came to people that hurt or threatened her family and the fact that she could talk to snakes and had a pet snake back home weren't exactly qualities that every Gryffindor had. She knew she was honorable in her own fashion and that she was brave most of the time. She just hoped that she wouldn't get put in Slytherin and have her family hate her.

Gabrielle was pulled from her musing as Trista Baker was called. She watched her new friend nervously walk over to the three legged stool and sit down. Miss McGonagall had barely placed the hat on Trista's head before it said "Gryffindor."

Lenora blinked as her name was called and the crowded room turned quiet enough to hear a pin drop for a few seconds before the whispers started. Who would have thought that her mother was that well known. She glanced over at the Gryffindor table briefly before forcing her legs to carry her to the stool. She had barely sat down before professor McGonagall dropped the hat on her head.

"Curious, I had heard you lot would be coming. Now the only thing to do about you, is to find a place for you. You have your mother's brains not that your father was a slouch in the brains department. But alas for poor Ravenclaw you have her same bravery. Loyalty is there to be sure, and courage aplenty not enough ambition to be in Slytherin unlike your father. So it had better be Gryffindor."

Lenora smiled brightly as she thought at the hat. "Yes please."

Lillian smiled as she watched the hat say "Gryffindor." She smiled as her own name was called out. She made her way to the stool and sat down. She heard a voice in her ear as the hat was lowered onto her head. "You my dear have brains and courage like your sister, a bit more ambition but not the right mind set to take full advantage of your particular gifts. So if it's not Slytherin it had better be Ravenclaw for you value smarts over everything else."

Lillian found herself half happy and half sad as the hat was pulled off her head and she made her way to the Ravenclaw table. While she had known for some time that ending up in Ravenclaw was likely, it didn't make being separated from her twin for the first time any easier to deal with.

Leo Angel Potter barely heard the next couple of names after the twins' names had been called. A few more first years trickled into each house table to varying degrees of applause. He was startled out of his drifting when he heard his name called. The name Leo Angel Potter just seemed to drift to all corners of room as the talking stopped as if cut with a knife. He forced himself to sit on the stool. He was amazed that the sorting hat barely spent a second on his head before it whispered, "Another one, I know just what to do with you." The hat shouted "Gryffindor." He smiled in relief as McGonagall pulled the hat from his head.

Gabrielle was glad when her turn finally came, at least one way or another the wondering would be over shortly. She felt the old hat settle on her head. She was a bit startled as it whispered into her ears. "You have to relax dear before I can read where to put you. Don't worry I'll protect you from outside snooping and what I see I never tell." She wasn't really sure how she felt about relaxing her mental barriers but figured that was probably the only way to get this over with.

Harry glanced around as he felt a spike of power coming from Gabrielle. He nervously glanced at the student and staff tables to see if anyone had noticed. Of the students it seemed that only Luna in the Ravenclaw table was paying any more attention than she had been before the spike. He noticed that both professor Flitwick and Dumbledore were glancing curiously at Gabrielle. His heart almost stopped as he noted that Snape was also paying more attention to Gabrielle than he had to the other first years. Harry quickly glanced back at the sorting hat.

"Such terrible glorious power in one so young, never in a thousand years have I felt such power. You Miss Rosenberg are a difficult one to judge, your father was a difficult one to place as well. Your mind skitters and mists thoughts even as I read them. Quite frustrating, I tell you what. But this I can tell you. You are brave, smart, cunning and aren't afraid of hard work when you have to work. Not very helpful to decide on it's own. Brains you have though, enough to make Ravenclaw weep to have you. But you have never cared overly much for the appearance of intelligence, which sets you aside from most in Ravenclaw. I see bits and pieces, emotions you have tried to bury. You plan and you plot, and yet even with all of that you are honest, maybe even to a fault. That is not a Slytherin trait. So if you can not be Slytherin you have to be "Gryffindor."

Gabrielle sighed in relief as the hat was pulled off her head and she could tighten her mental shields back into place as she made her way to the Gryffindor table to polite applause.

Snape scowled as he watched the girl head toward the Gryffindor table, he had felt something strange when the sorting hat was on her head. He wasn't sure what exactly it was but she would bear watching. He wondered briefly how different things would have been if he had been sorted into a different house before he crushed the thought as pointless. He silently groaned as he noticed the look of intense hatred plastered on Malfoy's face as his student's eyes followed the new girl. He wondered if the girl had done something to deserve the hatred of Malfoy. He shook his head slightly, Malfoy was an idiot when it came to picking his enemies, it was probably nothing more than that the girl had neglected to get out of his way fast enough on the train.

Trista clapped heartily when Rose Summers and William Weasley both made it into Gryffindor. Rose after nearly a minute and William after the hat barely brushed his head.

Dumbledore smiled as the last student sat down. He snapped his fingers and the food appeared on the plates. "Tuck in."

Gabrielle smiled as she overheard a particularly embellished tale of Malfoy's trip through the train hallway. She was sure that she had only hit his head once or twice maybe three times but not the seven the boy was saying. She was just glad that her mother wasn't here to yell at her about abuse of magic or something. She whispered to Rose, "So what took the hat so long?"

Rose shook her head, "Stupid thing wanted to put me in Hufflepuff. I had to talk it out of it. Stupid work ethic. What about you?"

"Oh the normal, you have traits or this and that and you sure you want to be there… blah blah blah… you would think that it could be a little less creepy about certain things. Besides I dislike things or people other than family in my head."

"I can't say I blame you. The hat said a few too many things about mum."

Gabrielle glanced around at some of the other people at the table, it was hard to tell who was listening too closely. "Ah well at least we got in Gryffindor. I'm going to have a blast this year."

Harry tried to keep a smile on his face as the evening meal got closer to finishing. He knew that he wasn't going to like Dumbledore's after dinner speech. It would be filled with various start of the term announcements and the declaration that Snape had finally gotten what he had wanted all these years. It was hard to stomach having to put up with him in his favorite class after not having to see the guy for almost twelve years. Harry realized with a jolt that all of the old anger was still there. Oh it had dimmed a touch as he grew and understood some of the reasons behind Snape's actions over the years but Harry knew it wouldn't take much for it to burst into flame again if he let it. He resolved to try one of Xander's suggestions out this year. Never let them see you angry as it gives them a feeling of power. Harry decided that he wouldn't give Snape the satisfaction.

Gabrielle sighed as Dumbledore mentioned the Quidditch tryouts. She knew that normally no first year had a chance but she was hoping that she could convince Professor McGonagall to wave that restriction if she could prove that she could fly. She grinned as Dumbledore finished his speech and dismissed the students.

Hermione Granger stood up, "First years please follow me."

Gabrielle, Rose, Lenora and Trista joined William and Leo as they all piled in with the other first year Gryffindor boys behind Hermione Granger as she lead them up to the Gryffindor common room.

Trista looked around the first year girl's dormitory. It had ten beds scattered around the room. The beds were four-poster beds with curtains that could be let down for privacy. "They look rather soft."

One of the girls that Gabrielle hadn't been introduced to spoke up, "How do we know which one is ours?"

Gabrielle grinned as she stepped out of her robe leaving her in just her shorts and t-shirt, "I'm guessing that they are rather soft, as for which one goes to which girl, just claim one. I think I will take this one by the window." She walked over and examined the alcove that had a bed nestled in it. She doubted that any of the rest of the girls would want it because it was bound to be colder in the winter months do to the window in the alcove. Her words were muffled as she pulled her shirt over her head, "I am thinking that I might just crash." She hauled her trunk out of the pile of luggage in the middle of the room. She placed it at the food of her bed and tossed her shirt and robe on it. She needed to remember to thank the house elves for being kind enough to drag her luggage to her room. She crawled onto her new bed without even bothering to slip under the covers.

Trista glanced away as she realized that Gabrielle didn't have anything on under the shirt. "It's already pretty late maybe we should all do the same."

A few of the other girls giggled in delight as they examined the rest of the room and sorted out beds.

Lenora frowned as she walked over to one of the beds and noticed how small it was compared to her bed at home, of course her bed at home was as big as it was so that her twin had enough room as well. "Sounds like a plan. If no one complains I'll take this one." She received a series of no we don't minds from her various roommates chattering roommates. She wasn't sure how much sleep she was going to get.

Rose's head had barely hit the pillow of her claimed bed before she was out like a light.

Several hours later Lenora crept stealthily over to Gabrielle's bed. She noticed that a small trickle of light was leaking out where a gap in the curtains was. She whispered, "You awake?"

"Yeah." Gabrielle opened the curtain with her right hand.

Lenora noted that the faint light was coming from Gabrielle's wand. It was sitting on her pillow giving her enough illumination to read one of her many text books. She climbed into Gabrielle's bed quietly, "So how much sleep did you get? You must not have gotten your computer to work?"

Gabrielle let the curtain fall back into place as well as the noise dampening charms she had finished placing on the curtains earlier. "I got about three hours so more than at home but less than when I'm at grandmas. As for the mini computer, that's a no go. The phone that Willow made works but the computer needs more work for the screen to stay stable in this E.M. field nightmare. It was making weird spiraling patterns and heating up alarmingly."

Lenora nodded, "It's not fair that you need less sleep than the rest of us."

"Can't sleep then?"

"No I keep tossing and turning. I can drift off but then I wake up and get scared because there is an empty space. I know it sounds stupid."

Gabrielle closed up her book and glanced out her window at the night sky for a minute before she turned back to look at Lenora, "You can stay here tonight, maybe in a few days you'll get used to it."

"Thanks." Lenora curled up against Gabrielle and drifted off to slumber soon after.

Gabrielle on the other hand was wide awake as she tried to pass the time by listening to Lenora's breathing and watching the night sky.


	3. The family we choose

Professor Dumbledore didn't quite sigh as professor Snape entered the office in a fouler mood than normal. "How did your meeting with Voldemort go?" He frowned slightly as he noticed Snape's anxiously clenched fists. "And would you like a seat?"

Snape forced himself to calm down. He glanced at the seat in front of the Headmaster's desk with disdain. "Forgive me headmaster, but as you know I've just gotten back from one of the dark lord's parties. It did not go well or how I expected. I do not have long before I am expected back."

"Are you injured?"

He shook himself some of his customary arrogance returning briefly, "Of course not, though I can not speak for several muggles that were the evenings entertainment. Nor some of the death eaters that told him things he didn't want to hear. I wish he hadn't picked tonight for the meeting. The sorting ceremony was enough torture for one day."

Dumbledore pushed the tray of lemon drops toward Snape with his good hand. "Lemon drop?"

Snape shook his head, "I fear that Hermione Granger's parents will not live out the night if we don't do something."

Dumbledore sighed it seemed that the last several months were filled with surprises. "How long do we have?"

"An hour at most."

"Then we will have to work quickly, Dobby." Dumbledore waited patiently as Dobby appeared with a pop, "Pleased to be working for you again this school year, sir. How can I help?"

"I need you to bring Miss Hermione Granger here as soon as you can, it's an emergency. Tell her I like peppered lemons."

"I will not fail sir." Dobby vanished with a snap of his fingers.

Snape waited for Dobby to vanish, "Sir we shouldn't be wasting time telling her we should be doing something."

Dumbledore shook his head, "Normally I would agree but I believe she will have something useful to add. Anyways you should start at the beginning. I find that having more information is always helpful."

Snape scowled, he was sure that the wheels were spinning in the old man's head, he wondered for the hundredth time how the old coot had avoided being placed in Slytherin. "I can only guess as to the dark lord's reasoning but he has pushed up the timetable for his takeover of the ministry. The dark lord has many plans going the least of which is allowing Fenrir Greyback more opportunity to spread his plague to muggleborns."

"Greyback is going to be involved on the attack?"

"Oh yes, the dark lord was rather pleased with his performance with young Trista Baker, as well as his maiming of several other muggle families. He was not pleased enough to give the beast his dark mark but pleased enough to say he could eat Miss Granger's parents. The dark lord seemed to think that it would cause Harry emotional anguish."

Albus shook his head, "I'm sure that it would cause Harry immeasurable anguish if such a thing were to happen."

Snape snarled, "I am at a loss to understand why the time table was moved up. Do you have any idea why he moved his time table up?"

Dumbledore smiled grimly, "Several, each more unlikely than the last. It might very well involve Harry."

Snape glared, "What has the boy done this time?"

"His moving this summer, may have broken the blood protection."

"Of all the irresponsible things that boy could have done. That would explain why Voldemort was interested in pushing the time table up. As for why Hermione Granger's parents I believe that it is Draco Malfoy's fault. Due to Narcissa running off with Rudolf Lestrange a few weeks ago, Draco has found himself almost worthless to the dark lord. With his family money gone he has found that there is very little an underage wizard can do to help the dark lord. He is I believe, getting a dose of the reality of the situation. A few days ago in a misguided effort to curry favor he spun a tale of Harry Potter's friends and how much he depends on them."

Dumbledore sighed, "Ah yes, I am beginning to understand, of Harry's friends Ronald Weasley and Neville Longbottom are both quite untouchable as they come from old pure blood lines. Hermione Granger on the other hand is a muggleborn that not only proves the lie about purebloods being better at magic but is one of Harry's best friends."

Snape nodded, "One of the dark lord's agents managed to use the imperius curse one on the younger members of the ministry. While this would normally be of only minor annoyance, this particular employee works in the department that was looking over the mess made by Umbridge's death. She somehow acquired the names and addresses of all of the muggleborn in the school. So now the dark lord has access to the names and addresses of the families of the muggleborn of Hogwarts including one Hermione Granger. I'm supposed to meet a group of death eaters near their house and help kill them messily and bloodily. After that we are supposed to split up and hit several other names on the list."

Dumbledore's face paled, "I'm afraid that doesn't give us much time to sort out the situation.

"I believe it is not simply a way to strike terror into the hearts of the muggleborn specifically and the wizarding world in general. I believe he intends to use it as the start of his campaign to weaken the wizarding world. I believe his next move will be to broaden his powerbase within the ministry."

Dumbledore closed his mouth as he heard a knock on the door. "Come in."

Hermione Granger ran a hand through her disheveled hair as she stepped into the headmaster's room. "You called sir?"

Dumbledore nodded, "We don't have a lot of time. Professor Snape as come with a warning about your parents."

Hermione paled slightly, "What about my parents sir?"

Snape actually managed a look of pity as he explained, "The dark lord is planning on having them killed tonight. As well as a number of other students."

Hermione's blinked, "Why? I mean what changed?"

Snape frowned as he realized that he was missing something as he looked between Hermione and Dumbledore, "Changed?"

Dumbledore sighed, "I believe that is a discussion for another time."

She nodded, "We made plans for something like this but… damn I never thought it would happen so soon."

Snape raised an eyebrow, "Plans for the dark lord attacking?"

Hermione looked intently at Snape, "I have two important questions, are there going to be dementors? And is Voldemort himself going to be there."

Snape blinked as he was sure the world was going to hell, he had just told a student that their parents were going to die and her only two questions were, were there going to be dementors and was the dark lord was going himself. If he hadn't known better he was sure that shock was affecting her mind.

"I'm sorry to tell you but killing your parents is not so important as to warrant his personal attention. Nor is he going to bother with dementors for this. However there will still be over twenty dark wizards there. There isn't much you can do other than run."

Hermione shook her head, "I have a suggestion that you will follow if you want to live."

Snape frowned, "What are you talking about?"

"I have a charm that will possibly keep the wards around the place from killing you. Do you mind if I take a lemon drop?"

Dumbledore shook his head, "I always find that sweets can help, though I'm not sure now is the right time for them."

Hermione plucked one of the lemon drops from the bowl of sweets and placed it on the table. She pulled her wand and waved it over the lemon drop silently.

Snape's rude response was stopped before he could utter it as he watched the girl perform a silence transfiguration spell to change the candy into a hard yellowish bracelet. He glanced at Dumbledore as she waved her wand over the thing in a complex twist, "Must I wear that?"

Hermione shrugged, "If you don't the wards will probably kill you, even with it I'm not sure you'll live out the night if you go with the death eaters."

Snape snarled, "I don't have a choice unless I want to hide in this castle forever."

Hermione shrugged and pulled out her phone.

Snape was just about ready to laugh despite his horrible day at her trying to use a muggle device when he realized that it was working as he could hear a girl's voice on the other side of the phone. "Hello?"

Hermione's voice finally broke down as she whispered into the phone, "Willow, They're going to kill my parent's."

"When and how long do I have?"

Snape frowned, "I have to go soon, I have maybe fifteen minutes to get to where I'm supposed to go."

"I'll send the crew and make sure your parents are safe. I love you honey bear and stay strong." The phone went dead in Hermione's hand.

Now that she had delivered her message Hermione found her eyes wet with tears. "Just take the bracelet enough blood is going to be spilled tonight."

"Sir with your permission I should probably get back to my dorm."

Albus nodded, "I don't know what to say."

Hermione was shaking as she walked out, "Nothing to say Professor, other than may the gods forgive me."

Snape watched Hermione leave, "I need to go, I'll try to make sure no one is harmed."

Dumbledore glanced at the bracelet, "You might as well take it. I'll also make you a port-key to Hogsmeade so you can get to where you are going faster. And good luck."

Lenora blinked sleepily as she woke. It took her a second to remember that she was at Hogwarts and that the cute rump that was attached to the girl looking out the window wasn't Lillian's.

Gabrielle smiled as she heard Lenora's breathing alter and the change in the rustling of the sheets that indicated that Lenora was awake. She continued gazing out the window. "It's beautiful this time of morning."

Lenora yawned, "It's a lovely view, what time is it anyways and how long before we have to go eat?"

"It's just after sunrise. We have a couple of hours before we really need to get to breakfast. Though I'm sure by the time we get done chattering and showering we could grab an early breakfast."

Lenora sighed, "For the people that only barely ever see the sun let alone the sunrise, the time is?"

"Just a touch after six in the morning."

Lenora glanced away from Gabrielle's tush to look over the rest of area enclosed in curtains. She noticed Gabrielle's crystal wand resting on the carved wooden nightstand. Lenora frowned as she briefly wondered where Gabrielle had acquired the nightstand. Next to the wand Gabrielle's plain silver pentacle necklace was coiled beside a black crystal framed picture. Lenora blinked as she recognized the naked girl in the picture as Gabrielle's pen pal Sylvie. The girl in the picture was standing in a pleasant looking forest. The girl waved then changed into a large white tiger before running out of the picture.

"When was the picture taken? And aren't you worried about what the other people are going to say if they see it?"

"She sent it to me last week as a don't forget to write gift. As if I haven't been writing to her a least every couple of weeks for years. As for other people seeing it, not really, it's charmed to look like a normal picture to anyone that hasn't met her."

"Besides, I had several hours to kill last night so I got to work making sure that no one was going to snoop. That and talking myself out of exploring."

Lenora frowned as Gabrielle turned and sat down with her legs crossed facing Lenora. "Talking yourself out of exploring? What's up? I've known you my whole life and I can't remember the last time you talked yourself out of exploring. I mean I remember that demon's cave that you just had to explore."

"Hey, that's not fair, I didn't know it was a demon's cave at the time. It just felt interesting. Besides, I told Lexie where I was going."

"You're just lucky that Faith takes bribes and liked the knife hilt you made out of the demon's leg bone, otherwise you would have been in serious trouble."

Gabrielle muttered, "It wasn't like it was that hard to kill."

Lenora shook her head, "So explain why you didn't feel the need to explore."

"I just had a bad feeling last night." Gabrielle reached over and pulled the drawer open and searched around for a second before pulling a lovely amethyst comb out of the drawer.

Lenora sighed as she glanced at the comb, "It's not fair that you can make those."

"I still say it's easy, just buy some junk rock that has whatever gemstone you want in it, then reach out with your magic and pull the material from the rest of the junk in the rock and let it flow into a mold. I'm sure that once you get better at transfiguration you could do it as well."

Lenora shook her head and muttered sarcastically, "I'm sure."

Gabrielle grimaced, "Be happy, at least you don't get stuck outside protection circles like mom and I. And just once I wouldn't mind being able to walk outside on a sunny day without my glasses on."

Lenora sighed, "Do you want some help with your hair before we head down to breakfast?"

"That would be nice." Gabrielle handed Lenora the comb.

Harry Potter quietly tried to disentangle himself from the robes of a curled up Hermione. She had slipped into his bed late in the night with her eyes wet with tears. He had spent an hour trying to calm her down before she finally collapsed into sleep. It had only been after news had come via a call from Dawn that said that every one of their family was safe that she had relaxed enough to sleep. He figured that he would get an earful at some point about his choice in friends and about the likely dead death eaters but he wasn't sure he cared. After all every death eater that went on the mission with the possible exception of Snape was looking to kill two innocent people.

Hermione yawned as she came awake and noticed Harry deep in thought. "Knut for your thoughts?"

Harry reached up and tucked a stray strand of Hermione's hair behind her ear. "Not sure my thoughts are worth a knut, but I was just thinking about my plans for restarting the DA. How are you doing this morning?"

She smiled as she thought about all of the little things that had changed with Harry over the years. He was more comfortable offering a touch or a hug than he had been before having a family. He was perhaps more willing to try for patience than he used to be. All good changes in her opinion. "Better than last night. You had decided already that you were going to restart it, are you thinking about changing your mind again?"

"Not so much that but maybe we should have a more public dueling club as well."

"Oh?"

"I was just thinking that we have untapped talent in the staff that is going to waste. Some of the professors are very good at dueling. We've improved a lot in the last few years of constant practice but let's face it, there is something to be said by real dueling experience."

"What you don't think you are going to have enough homework already?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "You and I both know we could ace our NEWTs if we took them this minute. I'm just saying that I want all of Hogwarts to know how to defend themselves when it comes to it."

Hermione smiled at Harry. "Even Malfoy?"

Harry twitched briefly before forcing himself to say, "Even Malfoy."

Hermione chuckled, "Though if Malfoy is going to be hogging the room of requirement maybe we should look into finding another place to train."

He smiled as he joked, "We could always use the chamber of secrets."

She blinked, "That's not a half bad idea, if we cleaned it up a bit. It's a large space and has rather selective entrance requirements. No one would ever suspect you of using it."

He nodded, "Besides cleaning it out would give the girls something to do in their free time."

"I still can't believe you let them keep the copies of the map that Sirius made."

"Oh please, they would have gotten into loads of trouble without them anyways. Might as well give them an advantage."

"You know you could have lent them the invisibility cloak if you wanted to give them every advantage."

"I don't hate the staff that much, besides Gabrielle doesn't need one."

Hermione nodded, "I should probably get out of here before someone catches me. I don't really need a lecture about proper witch etiquette."

Harry chuckled as Hermione pulled her wand and cast a disillusionment charm on herself. "I'll see you at breakfast."

Dumbledore was absently working on his morning paperwork when Dobby the house elf appeared in the room with a small popping noise. "Sorry for the interruption sir but you said you wanted to know as soon as Snape woke up."

Dumbledore smiled, "Yes of course thank you. Please if you would tell Poppy that I will be down to see Severus shortly."

Dobby smiled, "Of course, sir. Is that all you are needing me for?"

"For now."

"Thank you sir." Dobby vanished with a pop.

Albus sighed as he remembered how a pentagram formed of green flame had appeared out of thin air in his office at around midnight. He had despite his shock pulled his wand and cast a shield charm on himself with a speed that even a much younger wizard might envy. He had scarcely finished when Severus's bloody body fell out of the center of the pentagram onto the cold stone floor. His robes looked to have been burned off of him for the most part. The only intact piece of clothing he had was the charmed bracelet that was around his right wrist. The pentagram had vanished by burning up instantly after disgorging the body.

Albus shook his head to clear it of his wool gathering as he made his way down to the hospital wing. He hadn't been sure his friend was going to last through the night when he dropped him off with Madam Pomfrey but she had assured him that the most serious damage he had suffered was loss of blood. She hadn't been able to find any wounds that would explain where the vast amounts of blood staining his flesh had come from but she had poured some blood producing potions down his throat and stuck him in a bed to rest.

Severus looked up as Dumbledore entered the hospital room, he looked at the headmaster with haunted eyes, "We… we have twenty less death eaters to worry about. Well twenty one if you count me."

Dumbledore glanced at Severus's pale face and the couple of bandages that marred his otherwise intact looking skin. Dumbledore suppressed a chuckle at the fact that Poppy had even washed Severus's hair enough to remove the greasy look that he had been sure was permanent. He shook his head, "I haven't counted you a death eater in years Severus."

Severus shook his head briefly before wincing in pain. He held his left arm out painfully rigid. "It's gone."

Dumbledore's sudden intake of breath caused Snape a slight smile before the pain in his arm forced him set it back on the bed.

"How? And what happened after you left?"

"Never with the easy questions." Snape sighed, "I can tell part of the tale but I'm afraid I've been forbidden to tell the rest."

"Tell what you can."

Snape carefully reached with his good hand for a glass of water. After taking a sip of the water Snape slowly started his tale. "I arrived with plenty of time to meet the others. We flew to near the area and approached on foot not wanting to set off any wards the ministry might have placed in the area. The ministry was the last thing we should have been worrying about. Everything was going according to plan until we crossed the edge of the property. The fact that the torches lining the border flickered to life as we walked past the edge should have been our first warning." Snape took another drink.

Dumbledore frowned before he nodded.

"Exactly, it never occurred to the others that the torches posed a problem. It didn't occur to them that without an adult wizard around there shouldn't be any type of magic around. We had advanced on the lawn when Greyback complained about smelling something funny. We had closed to within a few yards of the house when the torch flames twisted and a connecting line of fire danced along the torches creating a barrier."

"That is some rather skilled charm work."

Snape shook his head, "I have never seen such charms. A few seconds after the blue fire finished the circle some of the younger death eaters panicked and started shouting that they couldn't apparate out. Someone had used the torches as the focal point of an anti apparation ward."

Dumbledore nodded, "Impressive."

"Greyback was the first causality."

"What happened?"

"A large werewolf jumped the twenty yards from the roof of the house to slam a ham sized fist into his shoulder. You could probably hear the shattering bones from a block away. It was rather creepy in that the werewolf looked down at Greyback and smiled. Well it did for the half a second it took for him to reach down and rip his arms and legs off."

"So Greyback is dead?"

Snape shook his head, "He would have been so lucky. It was about this time that three figures stepped out of the front door of the house. Two females and one man or male at least for I'm not sure any of them were human. One of the girls was wearing a strange blood red leather outfit. Her hair was iced blue. The other was a girl with long black hair, black eyes and a long gown so black as to feel like it sprang from the abyss. The edges of the gown blew as if hell's wind was at her back. The man had hair that was bleached blond and wore a muggle trench coat. Yet there was something disquieting about him, it might have been that he looked so normal compared to his companions."

Dumbledore tried not to grimace as Snape interrupted his tale for another drink.

"The girl in black saved Greyback's life by calling the werewolf off. She simply whistled and he looked up and vanished like fog. It was this that caused the death eaters to decide to attack."

"What happened?"

"Nothing, the wards prevented the death eaters from casting any magic. No matter how hard they shook their wands or shouted their spells nothing happened. He shuddered, "I've never seen anything that can block a wizard's magic so completely. She then proceed to point at Greyback's stumps, I watched in horrified fascination as the flesh closed up in a gruesome scarred manor."

"Did she say anything?"

"Oh yes, she said death was too good for Fenrir Greyback eater of children and devourer of flesh. Fenrir called the lady a whore and some other words that don't bare repeating. That wasn't the smartest thing he ever did. Maybe he was hoping that she would just kill him. Regardless of the idiot's desires the blue haired one simply walked over and slammed her boot into his face repeatedly until all of most of his teeth had been smashed out."

Dumbledore wasn't sure if the look on Snape's face was in disgust over Fenrir or what happened to him. He decided that he really didn't want to know. "What happened then?"

He shuddered, "She reached in and ripped his tongue out with her gloved hand. She then said that muck should learn to keep their mouths shut. The lady in black turned to face us and I who have stared into the dark lord's eyes felt fear. There was a rage there that I've never seen. She gestured to the girl in red leathers and the next thing we knew was that no one had their wand anymore."

"How?"

"I don't know, one second we were standing there tossing spells the next the girl with blue hair had a bundle of wands she was looking at. I and the death eaters were frozen from the neck down by some sort of magical shield. It was a horrible feeling as the girl started handing the wands one by one to the girl in black. You could feel the sense of dread coming from everyone. I think we all expected to die a painful death."

"What did the girl in black do?"

"She looked at them one at a time and broke most of them. As simple as snapping them in half. I could hear her muttering to herself about how the wand would never find peace after what they had done to them. I almost died when I recognized the fifth wand that was passed to the girl. I couldn't shout I couldn't even scream as she bought my wand closer to her nose before she slipped it into a pocket. I would have collapsed with relief if I could have moved at all. She broke the rest one by one some times walking closer to the wizard that had owned the wand listing their crimes. Some of the crimes even shocked me."

"So they are dead?"

Snape shook his head, "Some, some are worse." After a long pause he sighed, "She waved her hand in a complicated series of gestures. At first we saw nothing but then we saw shadows dance along the ground, they twisted and changed forms as they raced along until they flowed and merged into each person's shadow."

Dumbledore noticed that Snape was getting even paler as he relieved some rather painful memories. "If you want to stop."

Snape shook his head, "What do you think a child version of you would see? If they looked deep into your heart. If the one you loved most opened your head and poured through your heart? Everything you had ever done, judged in a minute. Every mistake played out over and over, every single sorrow you caused stripped of the healing effects of time. I would guess that a person that had lived a truly good life would have felt little from the shadows."

"But these were not innocent people."

"No they, we are not. I have never felt such emotional pain. The day I learned of Lily's death was the closest I've ever come. The cruciatus curse might cause more pain physically but it's nothing compared to whatever spell was used on us. Two thirds of the death eaters never even made it off the ground where they were trying to claw their own eyes out."

"That's a horrible curse though…"

"Poetic? I believe that is the word your Gryffindor outlook was keeping you from saying?"

Dumbledore ignored the jab at his honor, "What happened to the rest?"

"Some of them had apparently not done things so horrible as to be unforgivable." Snape's already pale face lost a touch more of it's color. "The only thing I can say about what else happened to them is that we will never have to worry about them again."

"What about you?"

"The lady finished dealing with the rest before she smiled as she said that everyone makes mistakes sometimes. She said that she would fix one of mine. The last thing I remember before waking up here was her grabbing my wrist where the dark mark was and then pain."

Poppy poked her head out of her office, "He really should rest headmaster, he lost a lot of blood and causing him more stress isn't good for him right now."

Dumbledore nodded, "I'm sorry Severus I should have let you rest first."

Snape shook his head, "What about my classes?"

"I was at one time a professor, a rather gifted one if I do say so myself. I am sure that I can manage a day or two of lessons while you get on your feet."


	4. First day of class

I still don't own any of the characters owned by anyone else.

Warning character death.

The next morning found Rose glancing around the great hall at all of the young wizards with a smile on her face. "I'm going to enjoy this year a lot I think."

"So do we all have the same classes?" Lenora speared the sausage on her plate with her fork while trying to glance at her sisters' schedules.

Gabrielle nodded, "Yeah, I think so. I mean we are all taking the same classes. Here, look." She handed the schedule to Lenora who took it before taking a bite of her breakfast.

Rose frowned, "Well at least we get one class with the Ravenclaws."

Gabrielle nodded absently, "So what about you Trista?"

Trista glanced at an overly loud first year girl sitting next to her. "I just wish they had steak for breakfast." She grumbled.

Lenora chuckled as she noticed Gabrielle nodding her head, "I'm sure that bloody almost raw steaks violate some type of health code."

Gabrielle licked her lips, "Well it shouldn't."

Trista protested weakly, "I didn't say anything about undercooked steaks."

Rose shook her head, "Let it go. We have class in a few minutes we should get an early start."

Gabrielle nodded, "Defense against the Dark Arts. This is going to be so much fun."

Lenora put a hand on Trista's shoulder, "Don't mind her, she is just an eternal optimist."

Rose frowned up at the staff table, "Speaking of defense what happened to Snape? Shouldn't he have been at the table?"

Lenora shrugged, "Maybe he ate his breakfast in his office."

Gabrielle didn't buy the explanation of Snape eating breakfast in his office but was interrupted from saying anything by hundreds of owls flying into the great hall for the morning mail delivery. She frowned as an owl dropped a letter on her plate before it flew off. She picked it up curiously before carefully ripping it open. She smiled as she read the note.

Rose frowned, "How come you get mail and the rest of us don't?"

Gabrielle grinned, "It's from my mom. She was just congratulating us for making it into Gryffindor. She says the house is going well. Other than that she doesn't say much."

Rose frowned, "Probably afraid of the letters being searched and read."

Trista frowned, "They read your mail?"

Gabrielle whispered, "Everything going into or out of Hogwarts is being searched for dark magic these days. So don't say anything you wouldn't want your 'friendly' government to know about."

Trista shivered, "That doesn't sound like a good thing."

Gabrielle shrugged, "Not really no, not much we can do about it, right now at least."

Rose was slightly worried about the right now part of Gabrielle's comment but tried to ignore the voice in her head that was ringing the alarm bells.

Trista found the twisting passageways slightly confusing. "How do you know where we are going?"

Gabrielle shrugged, "I suppose you're just supposed to get used to it."

Lenora shrugged, "I think it's this way."

Leo sighed even as he tried to tune out the girls' giggles and whispered conversations as he followed them through the twisted corridors toward the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. He was regretting leaving his map in his trunk but it wouldn't do to be seen with it. He was getting enough attention as it was from passing students. He had already fended off five questions about his last name this morning. He didn't really like giving them some vague answer about Potter being a common name. But he couldn't exactly tell the truth about things. He was happy as the giggles cut off as they entered the classroom. He briefly wondered why the girls had gone silent but soon found the reason. His gaze traveled over the room and noted a number of disgusting pictures lining the walls. He guessed from their contents that they were what happened to people when various dark spells were used on them. He pulled his eyes from the pictures glad that the other students weren't there to see his initial reactions. He tried to focus on the wizard in bright blue robes sitting on the edge of the teacher's desk.

Gabrielle glanced away from the pictures in disgust, while she wasn't as opposed to violence as her sisters she drew the line at pointless torture. Besides having a spell to cause pain seemed rather lazy to her, Uncle Spike would have been horrified at the wizard's lack of creativity.

Lenora's face turned slightly green as her eyes tried to avoid looking at the ghastly pictures as they went through the motions of whatever horrible fate they portrayed. She was at glad that at least the curtains were open and some natural light was trickling in. It made the whole scene slightly better.

Rose sighed as she noticed her companions reactions to the pictures. The pictures might have been horrible but she had seen worse. She had a hard time understanding Lenora's naïve outlook regarding human nature. She knew that Lenora had also heard all of the stories she had that Uncle Xander told about people summoning demons and had listened to Anya along with the rest of them over the years. Still it wasn't Lenora's reaction that worried her the most. The reaction that scared her the most was Gabrielle's, she wasn't sure if the look of disgust on her face was because she found the people's pain saddening or because she felt contempt for the sloppiness of the magic that caused the attacks in the first place. She figured it was a little of both and forced herself to focus on the old wizard watching the students. She waved to Dumbledore. "Good to see you again professor."

Dumbledore smiled, "You've all certainly grown up since the last time I saw you." He turned and looked at Trista, "I trust you have found Hogwarts to your liking Miss Baker?"

Trista nodded shyly, "Yes sir."

Gabrielle frowned, "Sir about professor Snape?"

Dumbledore smiled, "Ah yes, if you will find your seat I'll explain once the rest of the students get here."

Gabrielle sighed and nodded before quietly rummaging through her book bag for a notebook and pen to keep notes with.

Dumbledore smiled as he waved his wand at the attendance scroll to check off the last of the names as the last student filed in. With a tap of his wand the attendance scroll on the desk rolled itself up. He waited a few seconds for the students to calm down before he spoke. "I'm sure you are all wondering about Professor Snape, I'll only say that he was injured while on Hogwarts' business. No I'm not going to tell you what it was but you should have your professor back in a day or two. As for the less than charming pictures on the walls that's professor Snape's way of explaining how dangerous the dark arts can be. I'll leave the details for him to explain."

One of the first year Ravenclaw boys with mousy blond hair raised his hand, "Are we going to learn curses in this class?"

"Not any of the ones that are detailed in the pictures. Defense is less about cursing people and more about making sure you aren't cursed as well as identifying dangerous creatures and dark spells."

The same boy raised his hand as he glanced at Trista, "Like a werewolf?"

"I would prefer in the future if you waited until I called on you Mr. Trimble. However to answer your question, I'll as a question. How often is a werewolf dangerous?"

Lillian raised her hand slightly ahead of her sister Lenora's.

Dumbledore gestured to Lillian, "Miss Granger, if you would."

Lillian smiled, "Other than contact with their blood, a werewolf is only truly dangerous three days a month. The day before, the day during and the day after a full moon when they change into a wolf like creature. Other than those times a werewolf looks and acts mostly just like any other person."

Dumbledore smiled, "Excellent, five points to Ravenclaw. Can anyone name me some other creatures to be worried about?"

Gabrielle raised her hand and waited until he called on her, "Vampires."

He nodded, "Depending on the situation yes, anyone else?"

One of the Gryffindor muggle born boys raised his hand.

Dumbledore smiled, "Mister Raven is it?"

He nodded, "Frankenstein, or zombies."

Dumbledore frowned slightly but his eyes still sparkled, "I can see three problems with those answers, shall I list them?" He waited to see if anyone was going to volunteer an answer. "One Frankenstein is a muggle fabrication and doesn't exist, second it was I believe not the name of the monster but in fact the name of the doctor's that created the monster, and three he isn't in the book of dangerous creatures that was assigned for the class. Of zombies I will only mention that while we don't have ones that spread their plague by biting a person there have on occasion been other types. Can anyone give the correct name for them?"

Lenora and Lillian both raised her hands.

Dumbledore smiled, "The other Miss Granger this time please."

Lenora nodded, "Inferius or Inferi for more than one. As they are nothing more than animated corpses they are immune to most spells involving pain. They have a dislike of fire and sunlight though sunlight doesn't destroy them. Fire on the other hand…"

Dumbledore nodded, "Vastly dangerous creatures in groups."

Mr. Trimble scowled as he raised his hand.

Dumbledore gestured with his good hand, "Yes Mr. Trimble."

"How are we supposed to fight them off we are just starting our first year?"

Dumbledore nodded, "An excellent question, I don't expect you to be able to beat such a creature. However, what if you don't have to beat them? What if you only have to use enough magic to get away? Can anyone here think of a way to do that?" He gestured to Gabrielle who had her hand up.

"My mother always said that if you can't attack a… monster head on you should use your environment. If you are near something flammable light it on fire with a simple fire spell. You could also try a nice sunlight spell or toss a few bluebell flames at them. It might not be enough to stop them completely but it might be enough to get to safety."

Mr. Trimble snickered.

Dumbledore paused to glance at Mr. Trimble, "Something amusing?"

He shook his head, "Sir, I've never heard of a sunlight spell."

Gabrielle frowned, "If I might?" Dumbledore nodded. She half closed her eyes then pulled out her wand and pointed it at the wall. With a strong flick and a whispered spell a bright light dashed out of the end of her wand. "It even works for keeping plants healthy."

The rest of the students were shocked by the display being that some of them were struggling with even the basic charms and spells.

Dumbledore smiled, "Just because you don't believe it can be done doesn't mean it can't. For your homework," He waited until the groans died down, "I want a list of twenty creatures from your text book and a spell from your standard book of spells that could be used to fight off the creature if only for a minute. You will be graded on how well thought out your spell choice is. Simply listing a spell they suggest or a weaker version will net you few points. I suggest you spend the rest of the time this class period working on the project."

Trista sat down on her bed, it had been a long day. She was a bit confused though relieved that when it came to wizarding history her new friends weren't that much ahead of her unlike the rest of her classes. She had been slightly nervous when Professor Binns walked through the chalkboard into the class room but sadly that was the most exciding event that class period. She was going to have to try extra hard to force herself to stay awake. She chuckled slightly when she remembered Rose's disgusted reply when she had asked if everyone was as good as Gabrielle at transfiguration.

"Oh goddess no, it's probably her best subject and she is sickeningly good at it. She is also fairly good at Defense Against the Dark Arts as well. Oh and if she wants to duel run the other way, fast. She takes way too much delight in it. If it makes you feel better history is her worst subject."

Trista nodded mutely. She wasn't sure what she would have done if she hadn't made such good if strange, friends so fast. What with that awful Malfoy ratting her out for being a werewolf the other students gave her a wide berth. Even the other girls in her room didn't really talk to her more than they had too.

Rose sat on her bed glancing around her dorm room. She was feeling a bit out of sorts with just how far past the other first years she was. She glanced around the room at the various girls excitedly practicing spells and tried to remember back to when she was just starting to learn her magic. She sighed as the memories wouldn't completely come. She could remember brief flickers and important details but on the whole she found that she couldn't remember everything. She wasn't sure if she should thank her parents for giving her a leg up or yell at them for robbing her of the experience of being normal. She gave up on the normal thought and cast her thoughts over to Gabrielle, "Hey sis can you hear me?"

Gabrielle smiled as she caught the edge of her sisters telepathy, "I could hear you from a lot further than the twelve or so feet separating us, what's up?"

"Were you bored today?"

"Slightly, plus I had to stop myself from saying that the best way to kill a zombie was to cut it into pieces or blow it up. It's frustrating that we have to hide what we are or what we know. Just once I want to show the world what magic can really do."

"You will always have to hide who and what you are. You blaze with power to anyone that has eyes. I am just amazed at how few people here notice." Rose knew how much Gabrielle hated hiding what she was.

"You aren't exactly normal either love."

"I have a mystical key to the universe for a mother, would you really expect me to be normal?"

"I guess neither of us get to be normal."

"As I always tell you, normal is overrated."

Gabrielle tried to change the subject, "Did you see any cute boys or girls you liked today?"

"Not really most of the boys are even sillier than William, if that's possible. As for the girls I think you might have snagged the only cutie besides I doubt that any of them have a tongue that is as long as yours." Rose tossed Gabrielle a mental image of herself wearing only whip cream panties.

"As much fun as that mental image is, we need to decide how we are going to pass the time in this place."

"Spoil sport, we could always join dad's dueling club."

"That might take up what a couple of hours a week? No I think we need some type of serious project."

Rose wished that her other siblings were more comfortable with telepathy, while they had practiced enough that they could receive well enough and even if the need was great enough flag her or Gabrielle's attention if they were close enough they lacked the ability to talk to anyone else without her or Gabrielle linked with them. "I suggest asking the siblings for their ideas but maybe some magical armor?"

Gabrielle grinned as she reached out for Lillian, "Hey Lil how's Ravenclaw treating you?"

Lillian's voice echoed back over the mental connection, "They have lots of riddles and mental games here. I'm not sure they are half as clever as they think they are but it's nice to spend some time with Luna again. Though, I think I've lost potential friends by hanging out with her. I'm just glad I let Rose do a few protection charms on my trunk. So as much as I just 'love' talking to you this way… get to the point please."

Gabrielle chuckled, "Rosey and I were thinking about projects. How would you feel about helping Lenora look up some armor ideas in the library?"

"I could do that. I have some free time before dinner."

"Thanks love, I'll send Lenora down to help you in a few."

Lillian smiled as she made her way down to the library. She missed her twin but at least this project of Gabrielle's would give them a chance to spend time together outside of class.

Rose chuckled quietly before reaching out to Leo's mind.

Leo almost jumped off his bed when a girl's voice whispered in his mind "Hey sexy." He swore mentally, "Don't ever do that sis, it's bad enough when you ghost my eyes while in the locker room at the swimming pool. I know for a fact that you don't find me attractive that way, for which I'm eternally grateful." He could hear her chuckle in his mind. "And keep your damn thoughts to yourself about William." He twitched, it was terribly inconvenient to have a telepath for a sister when she was a pervert. While Gabrielle was a worse pervert, at least with her he knew that she only liked girls. With Rose her mind was always a scary crapshoot.

"Fine, I'll keep my yummy thoughts about him to myself. Anyways do you think you can help out with a little project of mine?"

"Do I even want to know what it is?"

"Oh come on, you'll like it."

"Why does it worry me when you say things like that?"

"Because you know me? Seriously though I want your input on a magical defense system for the house that Dad's having build to replace the wreck at Godric's Hollow."

"I'm all ears."

"I knew I could count on your love of making things explode. I figure you could use some work animating stone statues anyways."

"It's never anything easy with you. I'll grab William after he finishes playing his chess match with Ron." Leo wanted to bleach out his mind when Rose sent him a mental image of William being grabbed by her.

Rose snickered as she dropped the mental link before Leo could scream at her.

Gabrielle had just finished mentally explaining her plans to Lenora when she felt the magic in the area shift as Dobby popped into being on her bed. "How can I help you Dobby?"

"Dobby is supposed to give Miss Gaby a letter from Harry Potter." He handed over the letter.

She smiled, "Thank you Dobby, is that everything?"

He nodded, "Yes my lady," He vanished with a snap of his fingers.

Gabrielle wished she could get away with teleporting here. She frowned as she read the letter. By the end of the short letter her face had lost most of it's color and all thoughts of calling Dobby back for some whip cream were gone. Her great uncle Vernon was dead. According to her dad, he had been found impaled on a stake and left to rot in the front yard. The letter slipped from her suddenly numb fingers.


	5. Not so secret room in Hogwarts

I still don't own any of the characters owned by anyone else.

Gabrielle's thoughts were spiraling out of control. She didn't know how to feel about her great uncle's death. She had heard horrible sometimes even funny stories about the guy her whole life but had only met him once a few weeks ago when she had tagged along with her dad, when he had went back to his old house to get the remainder of his personal effects. It was a little sad to her just how ecstatic her great uncle had been to see the last of her dad. His aunt hadn't been much better. She shivered as she remembered that Dudley had spent his time alternating between being happy to see her dad go and casting her creepy looks. The way Dudley's eyes had followed her around the house on that brief visit had unnerved her more than any demon she had fought in the past. Her mouth twitched almost forming a smile as she thought about what painful things Lexie would have done to him if she had caught him looking at her like that.

At the time she had been glad that her sisters hadn't come but she wasn't so sure now. Because of Moldywort another member of their family had been ripped away, one that her sisters would never get to meet. She knew that Vernon had been a horrible person to her dad but at least he had taken him in. She sighed, "I'm not doing this. I'm not going to cry myself to sleep over that waste of a human." She brushed her hands across her face, trying to ignore the moisture upon them.

Harry wasn't doing so great himself either. He had been having a great first day back what with no Snape and his plans to start up the D.A. coming along well. He should have known better than to relax. The last twelve years of mostly good times had caused him to forget what living in the wizarding world meant. Thus even though he probably shouldn't have been, he had been shaken by word of his Uncle's death. He felt bad that his uncle was gone, not as badly as when he had lost his broomstick in his third year but it was his uncle he was thinking about. No the part that was causing him issues was the creeping feeling of doubt that said his uncle might have still been alive if he had tried harder to talk him into placing wards around the property. It had been so easy to just walk away the day that he had gotten his stuff, instead of staying and trying to convince him how much the wards were needed.

He bitterly remembered the smug look on Vernon's face when he had laughed at the idea of wards, "You're gone, these so called dark," he stumbled over the word, "wizards." "They can't have any interest in me anymore. I'll just tell them you went back to that school of yours and that will be the end of it." Harry realized now that it had been the smug and the condescending look on his uncle's face that had snapped his self control and caused him to walk out the door with Gabrielle without a backwards glance.

Harry pushed his dark thoughts away with an effort. He knew that his being older had changed things, he just hadn't realized how much until the attack on Hermione's parents. It looked like a large part of the game plan was going to have to be scrapped. It just served to convince him that he needed to push ahead with training.

His thoughts were interrupted by Ginny poking her head through the curtain opening, "Let's go get some food before Ron starts eating people."

Harry smiled slightly, while he didn't really feel like eating he knew that not eating wasn't going to do him any good in the long run.

Gabrielle had meant to start her projects but by the time she had pulled herself together emotionally and told her siblings what had happened it had been time for supper. She had just finished her first helping of food which tasted faintly like wet cardboard as far as she was concerned when she overheard several of the Slytherin's laughing over a piece of paper. One of the Slytherin seventh years smirked at the Gryffindor table. She thought she faintly heard the words, "Early edition of the Prophet." She wasn't sure though as too many people were talking near her to tell for certain. She really wanted to reach out and hex the whole lot of them but wasn't sure that would go over well when her mother found out. "I think I might grab a book from the library before I turn in for the night. I'll see you back in the dorm."

Rose nodded as Gabrielle sulked out of the room. She tried to ignore the idle chatter of the other Hogwarts students, their happy voices working their way down her spine like some type of northern frost vine. She knew that Harry's uncle was just the last in a long line of deaths, it didn't make it easier to understand the reasoning but it gave her something to focus on.

Gabrielle frowned in disgust as she glanced down at the dirty hole in the middle of the floor in the girl's bathroom. For a brief second she wished her father hadn't entrusted her with this particular important mission. She clutched her bag to her chest tightly before jumping down the hole careful to not touch the edges with her cloak. She enjoyed the feeling of air rushing past her for a few brief seconds before she called on her magic and floated the last few feet to the ground. Her boots made creepy crunching noises as she walked along the passage. She came to a stop in front of a large snake covered door. She glanced up curiously at the door covered with metal snakes. She hissed at the door, the snakes on the door slithered away from the edges as it swung open. She stepped through the doorway and made her way into the room. She let out a gasp as she took in the sheer size of the dead basilisk. "That's larger than dad said it was, though smaller than Uncle Ron said."

She searched through her bag for a minute before pulling out her dragon hide gloves. She slipped them on before walking up to the creature's head. She reached up and broke off two of the smaller fangs. She carefully held them away from her body as she walked a few steps from the creature. "What Anya doesn't know wont hurt her." She looked around for a few seconds before deciding that the floor would work well enough once clean. She raised her right hand and waved at a section of the ground and used her magic to sweep it clean of grime and debris. She transferred the fangs carefully to her left hand. She searched through her bag before pulling out a collapsible altar that while small was still larger than would have fit comfortable in the bag. She carefully set it up on the ground before placing a black silk handkerchief, pulled from her pocket, on the top of it. She delicately set both of the fangs on the center of it. She reached into her bag again and pulled out a curious box made of purple crystal and silver. She opened it and gazed at it's contents. She carefully pulled a piece of chalk out of the box leaving the rest of the contents alone. Her hands shook slightly as she pulled out her notebook and looked over the spell she was planning on using. She knew the spell by heart, why shouldn't she, she had been working on it for years, but she wanted to make sure that the magical glyphs she was scribing were perfect.

Gabrielle sighed, she knew that she was taking longer than the simple grab and snatch mission her dad had sent her on was supposed to take but she didn't really want to rush the magical symbols on the floor either. She just hoped that it didn't take too long to finish her other jobs. She stepped back and spared a few seconds to admire the twisting artwork of magical glyphs she had drawn on the stone. She forced the nervousness down as she knew that her family wouldn't approve of what she was planning on doing. She forced her family's reactions from her mind as she carefully stepped further away from the symbols. She pulled the gloves off and set them on a clean spot on the ground next to her bag. She carefully set the notebook down by her discarded gloves. She unhooked the clasp on her cloak and carefully folded it before setting it on her bag. She removed the rest of her clothes before carefully folding them as well.

She spent a moment enjoying the feel of the cool air on her skin, "Okay girl, now your just putting it off." She carefully walked back and knelt before the altar. She conjured her silver dagger without a word and set it carefully on the ground in front of her. She sang out in a clear voice, "Dea of veneficus, audite meus dico. Tribuo mihi is creatura vires." She used her magic to reach into the left fang and pull at it's magic. In the back of her mind she knew the prayer was more a focusing add than a part of the spell, especially in the world she currently found herself in but old habits die hard. She pulled the magic into herself. She felt it settle into her body even as the first fang turned to dust on the altar. She reached out her magic again for the second fang. "Dea of bellum, tribuo meus vesica vires of Monasteriense." She watched as the essence of the creature spiraled out of the fang and into her blade. She smiled as her blade drank in the deadly power of the basilisk. She smiled when the spell finished and the second fang crumbled to dust.

She smiled as she stood and stretched. She reached out and picked up her dagger. She smiled as she noticed a small change in her blade. Near the hilt a small glittery emerald colored glyph was etched into the silver of the metal. Gabrielle wondered how much of her blade's silver would be visible as time went on. She could feel her blade's magic absorbing the new magic and growing slightly. She kissed the blade before she dismissed her dagger back to it's resting place in her spirit.

She frowned at the clothes distastefully, she muttered to herself. "If I stuff everything in the bag and turn invisible I can probably make it up to the room of requirement without them." She frowned she knew she was cutting it close enough. She picked up her journal. She sighed and waved her hand around the room before pointing at a blank page in the journal. A series of measurements and drawings of the whole area appeared in the book. She shrugged, she figured it was better than trying to measure it out by hand. She gathered up her clothes and stuffed them into her bag before slinging it around her shoulder.

Gabrielle still had a large grin plastered on her face from her naked though invisible run through Hogwarts as she glanced around the isles of discarded trash in the room of requirement. She took a minute to admire the cathedral sized room before her gaze swept over the hidden objects in the room. She closed her eyes and allowed her senses to sweep over the room. It didn't take her long at all to track down the creepy feeling of darkness coming from the diadem perched on an ugly bust. She had at least come more prepared than her father had while hunting these cursed things. She pulled a lead lined iron box out of her bag. It clanked to the floor as she set it down and opened it. She pulled a old broken broomstick from the pile of trash. She grinned when she used the end of it to lift the diadem off the bust before she unceremoniously dropped the thing into the box and closed the lid. She frowned at the broomstick, "Forgive me." Purple flames danced from her hands as she used her magic to destroy the broomstick and the bust. "But I'm not taking any chances that the cursed thing bleed it's evil onto you."

She shook her head, 'Now I think I might just spend some time in here before having Dobby deliver that box to Dad so he can drop it off with Professor Dumbledore. I should probably start ripping apart the real junk for use as building materials for the chamber of secrets like Dad wanted. Maybe after that I can eat some of the other objects for magic.'

Dumbledore's face broke into smile as he ushered Harry into his office. Harry walked in, his wand pointing at the large iron box levitating in front of him. "Where do you want it sir?"

Dumbledore looked at the box, "Does it contain what I think it does?"

"If you think it contains lemon drops or some other candy then no you are sadly mistaken, if on the other hand you think it contains the Diadem of Ravenclaw then you're right."

"You can set it on the desk."

Harry sighed in relief as he waved his wand and set the box down, "It's quite heavy even with magic." He noticed Dumbledore's curious frown as he looked at the box. "Standard Scooby operational protocol for cursed objects is a lead lined box. Sometimes I just wish it wasn't an extremely heavy lead lined box. I would have destroyed it but I was hoping that you could find a way to save the diadem while destroying Voldemort's soul shard." Harry shrugged, "I thought that maybe you could come up with something."

Dumbledore nodded, "Perhaps, are you doing alright?"

Harry shrugged, "If you mean am I alright with my Uncle's death? No I'm not but I'm dealing and working through it. Just because I didn't like the guy doesn't mean I wanted him dead, sent to Siberia maybe… but not dead the way he died. I'm just happy that aunt Petunia and Dudley weren't home. They got a curious urge to go shopping that night and were stuck in traffic on the way back. I often wonder if the blood protection didn't work both ways sometimes."

Dumbledore tilted his head slightly, "Who can say. I doubt the last remains would have done anything overt to stop Tom but perhaps…"

Harry nodded, "We moved her and Dudley though they aren't happy about it they decided that it was for the best after everything. Luckily for them Vernon had a rather hefty life insurance policy being the director of the company he worked for and all. On to other news how is the search for memories going?"

Dumbledore's smiled, "It goes though slowly, but it's good to confirm that things didn't change. I don't think I'll ever get over how much knowledge that book gave you. Have you destroyed the locket yet?"

"After a long and very strange talk with Kreacher, yes I have."

"I thought you sent him away?"

"I did but we called him back shortly before we came to Hogwarts. We had a nice long talk about Regulus Black. I never really expected much out of him but it seems Hermione was right about another thing. I'll probably never consider Kreacher a friend but I do understand him better. He's slowly improving now that he has people to talk to. He even has a job helping out the Watcher's Council, though we don't call it that."

Dumbledore smiled, "I'm glad to know he is doing better."

Harry glanced at the professor's dead looking hand, "You really should have Willow look at the hand one of these days. There might be something she can do about it." He pushed on before Dumbledore could interrupt. "So we are left with the snake and the cup."

"We are doing better than we would have otherwise been. You look rather tired though."

Harry nodded, "I've had a rather long day, with your permission sir I think I'll go crash."

Dumbledore nodded, "Of course. I'll let you know when I have more memories to share."

"Thank you sir."


	6. Drunk as a Skunk

I still don't own any of the characters owned by anyone else.

Lenora smirked as she opened the curtains that normally blocked the view of the window from Gabrielle's bed. She giggled as Gabrielle groaned and turned her head away from the light streaming in from the open window. A muffled, "Light bad" came from Gabrielle as she buried her head into her pillow. "You young lady, came back drunk as a skunk on magic last night." She pulled the covers off Gabrielle.

Gabrielle winced at her sister's voice as she tried unsuccessfully with one hand to keep the warm covers over her. "Not so loud Nora, my head hurts." She gave up in favor of keeping her face buried in her pillow.

Lenora smiled as she enjoyed watching the light play over Gabrielle's pale skin. "Multicolored sparkles were bleeding out of your skin wherever anyone touched you last night. How much magic did you drink last night? Do you even remember stumbling back here?"

"It feels like Illyria hit me too hard in the head right now, so please stop shouting. I don't know how much I drank in… after the first few dozen items it was a little hard to keep track."

Lenora patted Gabrielle's tush, "So you going to do that again? Or do I have to put a leash on you to keep you behaved?"

Gabrielle gestured toward the curtains. They slid closed with hardly a sound as she rolled over onto her back. "If I remember right sister mine you're the one that wears the leash in the family."

"Only because you like it." She reached out and traced Gabrielle's right breast with a finger. She smiled as she took in the sight of her sister laying sans clothes with her messy long blood red hair framing her face. "You need a shower then some food before you face the day." She leaned down and kissed Gabrielle on the nose. She opened the curtains facing the window crawled out of bed, turned and left through the narrow gap between the wall and the bed. She was glad it was set up that way so that they didn't have to worry about anyone seeing something they shouldn't.

Rose smiled for the first time that morning since reading the Daily Prophet as she watched her sister walk into the great hall. She grinned from her place at the Gryffindor table. Her sister was doing much better after her shower. She noticed that Gabrielle's hair was still more blood colored than normal, she figured it would fade as the extra magic bled off. She waited until Gabrielle sat down in her chair before whispering, "You feeling better?"

Gabrielle started to shake her head but thought better of it, "I'll live."

Rose chuckled, "You should at least try to eat something."

Gabrielle sighed grumpily before making a plate filled with fruit. "I'll try any word about the attack?"

Rose's face blanched, "Yes but I don't think it's a good idea for you to read the paper right now."

"That bad?"

"Yeah that Rita is a piece of work. But eat your food first."

Gabrielle could hear vague whispers talking about the attack as she finished her food but with so many voices it was hard to pick out any details. Her heart leapt into her throat as she finally snagged the paper from Rose and read the front page article about the Boy Who Lived's muggle guardian's death. Gabrielle clenched her fist around the edges of the paper as she read a detail filled description of how they found Harry's uncle staked in the back yard. The painful detail would have been bad enough if the author hadn't made snide jokes about his death all through the piece. One of the tamer ones was where she compared him to a pig spit for roast. Her knuckles were white as she flipped to page seven and continued to read the story about the supposed abuses Harry had suffered in his childhood. The added part of the story was a smear piece carefully veiled as a historical piece detailing the Boy That Lived.

Rose winced but understood as the paper was consumed in purple fire as Gabrielle angrily ripped the still burning fragments apart. The other students near her inched backwards as she stormed out of the great hall. "That went better than I thought."

Trista winced, "They didn't say very many nice things did they?"

"Not really no, Rita needs to have a flaming quill stuffed up her arrogant arse." She glanced down the table at her dad. He didn't appear to be taking it much better than Gabrielle did. She turned back to look at Trista, "Not much we can do about it though, free speech and all that…"

Trista nodded, "Still we should probably get to class."

"Hopefully we have another Snape free day."

Gabrielle was very disappointed when she arrived at the dark arts room to find not professor Dumbledore but a sickly pale looking Snape. She tried to keep her emotions in check as his arrogant gaze swept the students.

Snape kept a groan from escaping his mouth with effort as he inspected all of the first years as they walked into his classroom. He was just happy that he didn't have any Gryffindor and Slytherin double classes this year. Snape tapped the chalk board with his wand as the last students filed in. Words materialized on the chalkboard. "Defense against the dark arts." He ground his teeth at some of the expressions on the faces of the muggleborn at that simple use of magic. "You have as first years been spared the last several years of horrible teachers in this subject." He ignored the shocked looks on some of the student's faces. "I believe that professor Dumbledore set you some homework for me to collect?" His gaze swept the room before he pointed at Trista, "You there, collect the papers and hand them to me."

She nodded and went to work collecting everyone's papers.

He glared at the students before taking the papers from Trista. "Thank you."

Trista blinked at the thank you before finding her seat.

"Let's see if anyone has any interesting answers." He read through the first paper for a few seconds before gesturing toward the chalk board. Three columns appeared then large words formed to label the columns Dead Students on the first heading and next to that Probably Dead students and finally Alive students. He glanced at one of the Gryffindor students, "Dead on the first monster. You apparently did not read the section on your monster well enough, if you had you would have noticed that it said in large black letters extremely magic resistant." He glanced over the class, "Does anyone have a suggestion on a better approach?" He noticed that the Granger twins had their hands raised but he ignored them. He wondered how they were connected to the other Granger but he pushed the thought out of his head. "Werewolf girl."

Trista blinked but assumed that there was really only one person he could be talking about. "You could have used a spell to create fire or light in front of the creature to distract it. It would have given you a few seconds to get away."

He smirked at Mortimer, "Shown up by a werewolf." He glanced back at Trista, "It would have been a better answer if you had listed the spell but it is still adequate."

He groaned as he made his way through the list marking the answers that were completely wrong. He explained why a number of the answers were wrong as he went along. He glanced up at the board as he finished the last paper. The werewolf's name was one of only two in the probably dead section, there were only six names in the alive section. The rest of the names were listed as dead. "Lillian Granger, Lenora Granger, William Weasley, Rose Summers all gave good examples of how to keep your head against dangerous monsters. Mr. Trimble has a passable list that would likely keep him alive with luck." Snape paused for a second as he read Gabrielle's name in the alive section, "Gabrielle Rosenberg did an excellent job with her work other than my doubt that a first year could cast some of the spells she suggested." He pushed on when it looked like she was going to interrupt, "However they are in the standard book of spells so I'll let it slide. The werewolf did a good job until her last choice. Making a floor slippery while inventive is not guarantied to stop a troll. Nor Mr. Potter is levitating a club to bash a mountain troll in the head a wise move even if it has by some miracle worked in the past. You might do better combining the two approaches. The rest of you dunderheads are dead, congratulations you failed. However sadly, this isn't real life, it's a class so I expect anyone that was labeled dead to correct their mistakes and turn the paper in again." His glare silenced the protests that were on people's lips.

Gabrielle wasn't sure what to think of the guy, while he seemed like a complete arse in some ways he seemed to be trying to actually instruct the students in how to defend themselves. She listened as he launched into his speech about the dark arts being many and varied. She didn't have to like him but she could learn from him.

That night Gabrielle frowned as she glanced around the busy common room. She was only listening with half an ear while working on her transfiguration homework. She was sort of annoyed that McGonagall had hauled her and her siblings into her office during lunch and tossed a bunch of tests on the table and said do these. The long and short of it being that she wasn't going to allow them to skate by with the other students as she knew they were much better than other first years. She couldn't stick them in a more advanced class but that didn't stop her from giving them more work and more theory than they would have otherwise received.

Gabrielle sighed it was nice to have work that was a half a challenge but it would have been nice to not have so much homework right off the bat. She could just make out Leo complaining to William about Snape being unfair while they played a game of wizard's chess.

Leo frowned, "It's not fair I tell you, he already has it out for me."

William shook his head, "What do you expect?"

"At least I didn't lose any points."

"There is that, sort of curious isn't it?"

"Yeah sort of weird from what Harry said."

"Well at least it's better than History of Magic. They should have fired him years ago. It takes real talent to make a goblin revolution sound as boring as he does."

"I guess it's because he is a ghost that they haven't fired him."

"Probably."

"So how is your transfiguration homework going?"

William shrugged, "I already got most of it done. It wasn't that hard I figured I would do the rest after the game then get Lenora to look it over."

"Probably better than Gabrielle, I'm not sure she always remembers the theory that well."

"Would you if you barely needed it?"

"I guess not, besides she hasn't been in the best mood lately."

William grinned, "She just needs to get snogged more."

Leo's shook his head, "That's your answer for everything isn't it?"

William grinned, "That or shagged."

Leo was distracted from that horrible mental image by Harry's loud voice announcing the tryouts for quidditch. "I wish we could play."

"Next year."


	7. Crystal balls and showers

I still don't own any of the characters owned by anyone else.

Rose glanced up from the fading image in her sister's crystal ball to look out the window. She shivered, she didn't understand how Gabrielle could deal with the cold that trickled in from her window even when it was closed. As much as Rose hated being stuck in clothes most of the time, she thought her sister was more than a little nuts for running around the forbidden forest with hardly a stitch on. She briefly thought about looking up a spell to enchant a shirt for warmth as soon as she could get to the library, but decided it was easier to just heat up the bed again. She reached over snagged her wand from her sister's nightstand and cast another warming charm on the bed and covers. It was already much colder out than she was used to. Though she guessed that was to be expected as it was already near the end of October.

Rose sighed, she was sitting in her sister's bed because she was waiting for her sister to return from the forbidden forest. Her sister had been raiding the forest for things to sell for a few weeks now. Rose knew that she should have put a stop to it as soon as it started rather than helping her sister by teleporting the materials out of Hogwarts. She also knew she should feel bad about selling something that came from an intelligent monster even if it would just as soon eat you as talk to you. The problem was that their best source of cash for the materials for their projects involved selling the things Gabrielle gathered from the forest. Anya was one of their best buyers, she just happened to be outside this world and thus outside Gabrielle's teleportation range but not Rose's. Rose was fairly sure that Gabrielle could have ripped open a portal there at great need but that would leave all sorts of evidence and raise all sorts of questions as well as take a larger amount of power than they wanted to risk. Besides she knew that she shouldn't complain as she was making a great deal of money both muggle and wizarding from the sales.

Rose gathered her concentration and tried to get Gabrielle's crystal ball to show her sister. It was rather hit and miss depending on how much magic her sister was using to hide herself. If her sister was invisible the best it could do was a shimmering image. The worst was it not functioning at all. In some cases it merely showed the area where she was. Add to that difficulty the fact that Rose wasn't particularly good at using her sister's crystal ball, and it made for a frustrating early morning. She would have just used her own crystal ball which had been one of the first things she had bought with her ill-gotten gains but it couldn't even pick up an image of the area where Gabrielle was let alone Gabrielle while she was invisible.

They'd spent many hours when they first noticed the quirk working on why that was, they finally decided that it was because Gabrielle had used so much magic on it that it was attuned to her or something. She would have to remember to ask Willow or Dawn for a better explanation on her next vacation.

Rose fidgeted, she knew that her real reason for trying to catch glimpses of Gabrielle running through the forest had little to do with making sure her sister was safe. Mostly it was that she found the sight of a naked girl running through the woods fighting monsters gave her a nice happy feeling. She had been particularly disappointed in the Hogwarts students when it came to cute boys or girls. She had met a few people who might be worth making friends with but none that she was sure would grow up to be something other than self involved idiots. Rose's fingers lingered on the crystal ball as her thoughts drifted away from her sister and toward the girl's showers.

Gabrielle blinked at the early morning light as she worked her way out of the darkened passageways of the forbidden forest. She smiled as she felt the wind play over her skin as she breathed in the cold morning air. She knew that she was risking expulsion and a severe punishment from her parents by running around the forest at night but it was too much fun to pass up. She argued with herself that it wasn't like it was detracting from her studies, she didn't think that would hold water with either her parents or the school but felt it was worth the risk. Besides there was a lot to learn when you could sneak around places completely invisible and mostly scentless and if you tried hard enough move almost silently, she was still working on that last one. She had a much better idea what centaurs did on their downtime than just about any other person at Hogwarts with the possible exception of Hagrid. She tried to push the thoughts about how cute some of the young centaur girls were out of her head as she made her way back to the castle walls.

She reflexively tossed herself to the ground, forgetting for a moment that she was invisible, when spotted professor McGonagall escorting a pale looking Trista back from the shrieking shack. Gabrielle held her breath as she watched her friend make her way back toward the castle. She sighed in relief as the two vanished into the castle. She looked around for a brief second then called forth her magic and jumped into the air. She flew quickly to her window. Her heart skipped a beat when she found the window locked. Her mind went spinning through a horrible series of what ifs until she realized that her sister had merely closed it to prevent a draft and that her sister was laying in her bed using her crystal ball.

Rose was startled from her crystal gazing when she hears her sister's whispered voice, "Enjoying yourself?" The misty image of the girls bathroom faded from the crystal ball as Rose's fingers quickly left it. "I couldn't sleep, I was too worried about Trista's transformation and the upcoming Halloween feast." Rose watched the window seemingly shut by itself.

Gabrielle dropped her invisibility as she sat on the bed and faced her sister. "So any girls worth watching in the shower?"

"As long as you avoid the sixth year bathrooms most of them. Some of the older boys are worth a look as well."

Gabrielle grabbed her large crystal ball away from Rose and mock glared at her sister, "Use your own crystal ball for the boys' bathroom."

Rose grinned, "It's not my fault I'm slightly more normal than you."

"How am I not normal?"

Rose reached out her right hand and patted Gabrielle gently on the head, "We don't have that much time."

"Laugh it up, but I'm not the one spying on the boys' showers."

"Oh believe me if they could they would totally spy on us, and I know you and Lenora have spied on the girl's showers so don't even claim innocence."

Gabrielle set the crystal ball on her nightstand, "As Fred and George would say, innocence is totally overrated."

"I'm not sure either you or them ever had much to start with."

Gabrielle smiled, "Now speaking of innocence… you're in my bed… and I'm all wound up from hunting."

Rose chuckled even as she lifted up the covers for Gabrielle to slip under, "Come and snuggle then."


	8. Illegal gambling

I still don't own any of the characters owned by anyone else.

Trista looked around the great hall with disappointment as well as a little fear. She wasn't sure if she should be amused with Gabrielle and Lenora or not, they had talked her into wearing one of the Weasley twin's enchanted costumes. It was still early in the morning on Halloween but there were only a few other children with any type of costume on. She had been on the receiving end of a number of odd looks on her way from her room. Not that she wasn't used to a certain number of hostile and odd looks due to the fact that she was a werewolf but apparently people were even less used to creative costumes. Though to be fair she supposed she would have to forgive the people sending her odd looks this morning, being that it looked like she had a flaming pumpkin for a head. She thought the costume was brilliant. She had been a little nervous about the price until her friends explained that it was publicity for a friend of theirs' shop.

She often wasn't sure what the deal was with her new friends. They were very open about certain things in their lives, sometimes too open, but they tended to change the subject at odd points in conversations. For example whenever the topic of conversation turned to include parents they all got rather vague and worked on changing the subject, same thing happened when she asked too many questions about the neighborhood where they grew up. Trista shook her head in disbelief as Gabrielle came gliding in. She hadn't thought Gabrielle was serious about her costume.

The students of Hogwarts were shocked to see Gabrielle dressed in a strange old-fashioned yet short icy blue dress. Sparkles of frost continuously fell from the dress as she danced into the great hall. Her ears had been charmed to make them more pronounced and elflike than normal. The large pixie wings growing out of her back completed the fairy look.

Rose winced as Malfoy walked toward the Gryffindor tables on his way to the Slytherin tables with a smug expression plastered to his face. She was sure he was behind the increase in verbal abuse the Slytherins had been plaguing Trista with the last few weeks. They couldn't exactly prove it to the teachers but they all knew that Malfoy had it in for them because of what had happened on the train.

Snape stifled a groan as he watched Malfoy head out of his way toward the Gryffindor table. He'd known Malfoy was a fool but he didn't think he was such a fool as to approach hostile ground with no backup. Snape figured he was assuming that none of the Gryffindors would do anything under the watchful eyes of the teachers.

Malfoy sneered as he stopped and inspected Trista's costume. "You do understand that only mudbloods dress up for Halloween?"

Trista swallowed the shiver of fear that ran up her spine whenever the larger sixth year was around. She tried to focus on her food and ignore him.

Malfoy frowned then whispered, "Hey I'm talking to you mudblood, pay attention when your betters talk to you."

Rose winced as she noticed Gabrielle's expression of glee.

Gabrielle's face lit up into a smile as she turned to look at Malfoy, "First of all you aren't her better, second of all I'm wearing a costume so does that make me a mudblood?"

Malfoy too self involved in his thoughts, didn't notice Snape approaching behind him. "You're at best a half blood whore that wouldn't know the proper way to act if it bit you in the ass."

Gabrielle having noted the professor's approach for a while just smiled grimly as Malfoy dug himself a grave.

Snape scowled, "Is there a problem here?"

Malfoy straightened his back, "No professor, I was just commenting on the Halloween costume being outside of the dress code."

Gabrielle shook her head, "Actually, he wasn't but beyond that he was slandering my heritage. I demand a wizard duel."

Rose winced, she had known that Gabrielle's dedication to wading through the old wizarding law books on her off time was going to cause problems.

Malfoy snorted before laughing. His laughter was cut short as Snape nodded. "I believe that can be arranged."

Malfoy looked at Snape in shock. "What?"

"If you had paid more attention in history of Magic you would know that slander of one's magical pedigree is a grievous offense worthy of being challenged to a duel. It is an old law, one that hasn't been enforced in years but laws are laws." He pressed on knowing that Malfoy was opening his mouth to deny having said what he himself had heard him say. "Sadly for you, I witnessed your idiotic remark." Snape turned to look at Gabrielle, "If you insist on this duel I will talk with Professor Dumbledore and your guardian about it Miss Rosenberg."

Gabrielle nodded, "I couldn't in good conscience not defend my family's honor."

"In that case I will discuss this matter with the headmaster and notify you both with the details. Come along Malfoy before you do yourself more harm." He dragged Malfoy with him as he headed toward the headmaster's office.

Whispers broke out all along the Gryffindor table.

Trista glanced over at Gabrielle, "You didn't have to do that."

Gabrielle shrugged, "I just wish I could challenge him to a duel because he is a jerk, rather than because of family honor."

One of the other girls in first year, "He's going to rip you apart in a duel. What were you thinking challenging him?"

"Even if he does beat me, it doesn't matter. If he wins than he is a sixth year that beat up a little first year. Not exactly something to be proud of. If he loses he is a sixth year that got beat by a first year. He will never live that down."

Lenora sighed, she knew Gabrielle meant well but she couldn't help but wonder if a public duel was such a great idea. She just hoped that her sister wouldn't get into too much trouble with her mother over the duel.

Xander grinned, he was having a lot of fun supervising building a small fort to replace the wreck of a house destroyed on this spot fifteen years ago to the day. He was happy that he wasn't having to move all of the stone blocks by himself. He was even almost used to seeing the oddly lumpy demonic dwarf like creatures that were the actual work force running around the place. He couldn't pronounce the demon species actual name but figured it didn't matter because after him butchering their proper name so badly so many times they had all stopped objecting when he called them demonic dwarves. They weren't the nicest of creatures but they did good work and they were fast and reliable. Cheap was something they weren't but Xander hadn't been expecting cheap as they were contacts of Anya's. Besides all he had to do was supervise and by that he meant stand around, look pretty and occasionally add input.

The basic design had started with a six towered keep with the towers spread around the outside of the keep as points of a star. Somewhere along the design phase everyone decided that having an extra two towers might be nice incase they needed the extra space down the line.

Thus the plans he was looking at now called for an eight sided shape with the towers serving as the points of the star. The interior of the keep was supposed to contain a large kitchen that would be a mix of magical and muggle appliances. He still needed to have someone reliable go over the kitchen ideas with Dobby. Well that's assuming that Dobby could be spared from Hogwarts and he could find someone to serve as the cook. He wanted to make sure the dinning room was large enough to hold a family gathering as well as a great number of family friends. He was working on the balance between the guest rooms on the first floor and the dinning area when Willow walked in holding a letter. He quickly moved the plans for the second floor master bedrooms off the chair next to him so that Willow had a place to sit. "You have that look on your face."

"Which one is that?"

"The same one Dawn had on her face when we destroyed Sunnydale but realized the mall was also destroyed."

She frowned as she fiddled with the letter. "It's from Dumbledore about Gabrielle."

Xander smirked, "So what did the little mischief maker do?"

"She challenged Malfoy to a magical duel of honor."

Xander frowned, "What did he do to deserve it? And are you going to let her fight him?"

"You know that he has been harassing her new friend since school started. Apparently the last straw was him calling her a mudblood."

"I say he deserves what he gets for calling Gaby a mudblood, besides she could use the practice against an opponent she hasn't had years of practice dueling. It would be nice to see her able to fight someone she is willing to go full out on. Besides from everything I've read about the guy he is an ass."

"That doesn't mean I would wish a pissed off Gabrielle on him."

Xander shrugged, "Sign the permission slip and let the professors handle it. Oh and make sure that Rose or Lenora or maybe Lillian get a magical recording of it."

Willow chuckled as she grabbed a pen and signed the scroll.

The professors announcement that there would be a wizarding duel right before the feast that night spawned a great deal of gossip, most of it centered around the idea that a first year had challenged a sixth year to a wizard duel. The students weren't sure why it was being given so public a venue or why it was even allowed in the first place but it was certainly adding to the excitement of the night. By the time lunch was over Rose had already filled half her notepad with bets with plans to fill the rest before the duel actually started. She grinned as she finished writing down a bet from a seventh year Ravenclaw that had placed three galleons on Malfoy. She frowned as a bulky Gryffindor seventh year and his friends walked up to her. "You the girl taking bets?"

"If you mean am I the girl saying Gabrielle will toast Malfoy then yeah I am. How much you going to wager big man?"

He frowned down at her notepad, "Five galleons if you can cover that."

Rose rolled her eyes, "Not much of a bettor are you? I could say cover ten galleons but I don't think you have the backbone to bet that much…"

He snarled and not wanting to look stupid in front of his friends he nodded, "Fine ten galleons."

Lenora glanced at her as she was sister writing down the bets. She knew that Rose had a nice allowance but she wasn't sure she actually had enough coin on hand to cover all of the bets in the notebook if something went wrong.

Rose grinned, she knew she would rake in a lot of galleons if her sister won the duel. Of course she was slightly worried about the number of galleons she would lose if her sister lost but that was the risk of betting. Mostly she was having fun setting up all of the bets and seeing what people's thoughts on the duels were. She was being careful not to take any bets from Gryffindor or Hufflepuff students that didn't look to be able to afford to lose. As for the Ravenclaw and Slytherin students, she figured they could take any loss they were stupid enough to bet.

For Gabrielle the day seemed to slide slowly along as she waited for her chance to duel Malfoy. As the feast approached she was having second thoughts about the dueling, not because she thought she was going to lose, though she admitted there was a chance, no the real reason she wasn't sure she wanted to duel him was that she would have to use magic much more impressive than the couple of spells the other first years had mastered. It would put an end to any chance of her ever being able to slink into the background again. She knew that this one simple act would forever change her Hogwarts experience. She sighed as a stern professor McGonagall lead her up the steps to the dueling platform that had been set up where the professors normally ate.

McGonagall had been against the public demonstration, she was quite shocked that Snape had advocated for the public duel. She would have expected him to want this type of thing dealt with in a less public manner. She couldn't even guess the reason Albus was allowing the duel in so public a fashion either. She glanced over at her fellow staff members before looking sternly at Gabrielle and whispering. "No one would think ill of you if you called off the duel."

Gabrielle shook her head, "I would." She turned to face Malfoy across the dueling platform.

On the outside of the platform Snape was giving Malfoy a similar whispered speech. "No one would think ill of you for admitting you were wrong and giving her a public apology and backing out of the duel. No one will respect you for beating a first year in a duel even if she started it."

Malfoy snorted as he whispered back, "It's not about respect, it's about causing the little bitch pain."

"So be it." Snape sighed even as he walked back to where the other professors were standing.

Dumbledore kept his face neutral as he gestured for quiet. "Tonight you will witness a wizard duel. I'm sure you have heard the ugly reasons behind this duel." He looked intently at Malfoy. "Normally I would have settled this by taking points from Malfoy's house and been done with it. However there is an old law that no matter how outdated, allows such challenges to a wizard's honor to be answered with a wizard's duel. So without further ado I'll let our own dueling champion professor Flitwick referee the match."

Professor Flitwick nodded, "Thank you Dumbledore. Let us set some ground rules. He glanced at Malfoy, "No illegal curses," then turned his attention toward Gabrielle, "Either one of you may forfeit the duel at any point. Do you both understand?"

Malfoy and Gabrielle both nodded.

"Then nod to your opponent and you may start."


	9. Duel to the pain

I still don't own any of the characters owned by anyone else.

Hermione Granger listened to Flitwick's speech about the rules for the duel with growing apprehension. She unconsciously squeezed Harry's hand harder as her daughter in all but blood stepped up onto the dueling platform and turned to face Malfoy.

Harry winced as he felt the pressure on his hand from Hermione's nearly crushing grip. He wasn't exactly happy knowing that his daughter was going to duel. While he was fairly sure she would win he didn't trust Malfoy to not do something drastic if he realized he wasn't going to win.

Hermione tried to push back the fear that was clutching her heart as she watched her baby girl prepare to fight her first duel against an opponent that actually wanted to hurt her.

Neville Longbottom smiled as he watched Gabrielle glare at Malfoy. He noted with some amusement that she was still wearing her pixie outfit. Malfoy on the other hand had chosen black and green dress robes that would have almost managed to make him look dignified if it wasn't for the sneer on his face. He had to admit that he was looking forward to Malfoy getting crushed by his little garden girl. He fondly remembered all the hours they had spent discussing magic as they worked in the garden together. He remembered a few duels he himself had fought against her. He noticed that the rest of the Gryffindors were watching the duel with some concern.

Draco wasn't sure why he was being subjected to this farce. He just knew that he had to play a clean game while under the public eye but he was determined to make the little bitch play. He didn't think it was going to be hard but there was something vaguely unsettling about the way she was looking at him. He summoned up his Slytherin pride and pushed that thought to the back of his mind. He figured he just needed to knock her on her ass to make her cry like the little mudblood bitch she was.

Gabrielle frowned as she heard the announcement to start the duel. She inclined her head slightly never taking her eyes from Malfoy. She had barely finished the nod before he had screamed Expelliarmus. She swished her wand and deflected the spell causing it to harmlessly hit the wall. "Did the wall offend you?" She smiled as she heard his teeth grind in frustration. Bright flashes of energy dashed from her wand tip to slam into a hastily constructed shield that Malfoy created at the last second.

Lenora smiled as she noticed her sister's silent casting as opposed to Malfoy's shouted spells. She had to admit silent casting while harder gave you an advantage in a duel. She was just happy that someone other than her was getting a taste of his sister's dueling.

McGonagall was vaguely impressed as Malfoy conjured an impressive amount of fire at Gabrielle's feet. She was slightly more impressed as Gabrielle waved her left hand at it and froze it solid.

Harry sighed as Malfoy shouted "Serpensortia, Serpensortia." Two conjured serpents sprang out of Malfoy's wand. He shook his head briefly in amusement at Malfoy's mistake. Malfoy gestured with his wand at the two serpents as he shouted, "Engorgio." The two serpents grew even larger as the enlarging spell took effect. He noticed the gleeful look on Malfoy's face as he told his snakes to attack. Harry chuckled as Malfoy's face lost the happy expression when Gabrielle told the snakes to eat Malfoy.

Malfoy was shocked as his opponent just smiled before hissing at his snakes. He was even more surprised when the snakes turned on him darting in to bite at his ankles. He turned his attention from his opponent for a second as he vanished the snakes with a well cast Evanesco spell. He was getting seriously nervous as the duel was in no way turning out as he had expected. His attention was pulled firmly back to the fight as his opponent's severing charm slashed though his weakened shield and took a bit of flesh off his shoulder as it severed his robe's left sleeve. His face contorted in anger as she smiled and said, "Opps, sorry about the shoulder."

Snape watched his student lose it as he shouted spell after spell at the girl's shield with little success. Each spell becoming wilder and wilder as Malfoy's anger increased. He noticed the disturbing calm with which the girl picked apart all of the spells. He frowned as she snuck in another few severing charms that cost Malfoy most of the top part of his robes. He was wondering how far the professors would allow the duel to continue as the girl slipped in a spell that caused Malfoy's ears to grow pointed almost like an elf's. Snape could that tell most of the Hogwarts students and a few professors in the crowd were on the verge of laughing. Snape realized with a sinking feeling that Malfoy was being played with. He wasn't sure what Gabrielle's plan was but the calm and deliberate placement of the spells was starting to chill Snape. He had just decided that the duel needed to be called when Gabrielle smiled and conjured a large standing mirror near Malfoy. The look on Malfoy's face as he looked in the mirror and saw the elf ears removed all of Snape's doubts as to if Malfoy had lost his remaining sanity.

Harry seriously considered shouting a warning as he recognized the malicious look that crossed his daughter's face as she used the few seconds of Malfoy's stunned disbelief to gather her energy in a large swirling purple and black vortex of power.

Flitwick's face displayed his shock as the large mass of dark energy dashed from Gabrielle's outstretched hands to slam into Malfoy's shield shredding it like wet tissue paper and sending him crashing to the ground. Flickwick quickly shouted, "The duel is over."

Malfoy had barely managed to sit up when he felt a strange creeping sensation all over his body. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a strange sight in the mirror. His wand fell from his hand as the full horror of what had been done to him set in. He noticed an almost familiar face gazing back at him. If he had had a twin sister with elf ears the face would have been very familiar. The last thing he was aware of was a bright flash as his eyes rolled back in his head as he noticed the fact that he had decent sized breasts peeking out of his shredded robes.

Colin Creevey smiled as he snapped off a number of shots of Malfoy on the ground. He knew that he would have to disappear in the confusion if he wanted to make any money off the shots of Malfoy as a girl. He knew that a number of students would pay good money to have a shot of Malfoy's ultimate humiliation. He was just glad that he had looked up that duplication spell a few weeks ago.

Dumbledore stood up from his seat, "Now that the delightful duel is done we shall start the feast. Sadly I don't think Mister Malfoy is in any condition to attend the feast. Snape if you would be so kind as to take him to the infirmary, I'm sure he will be right as rain by the morning. Now if Miss Rosenberg would be so kind as to get off of the teachers table we can begin the feast."

Gabrielle smiled as she jumped down from the dueling platform and headed over to sit with her sisters. She knew she was going to hear about it in the morning when they found out that the curse on Malfoy wasn't going to be all that simple to remove but she figured she would worry about it in the morning.


	10. That time of the month

~I still don't own any of the characters owned by anyone else.

Albus wasn't sure when the last time was that he had witnessed such conflicting emotions playing across his friend's face. He could just barely detect the smallest twinge of disappointment in his friend's face mixed with elation at finding something so challenging. Albus figured that the disappointment was because Flitwick knew he shouldn't be as amused by the curse as he was.

Flitwick's frown deepened as he tried another counter spell that he was sure should have worked. A part of him was slightly disgusted with himself for not being able to instantly lift the curse. He knew that he should have been able to easily remove the curse as it had only been cast by an eleven year old witch. His long held expectations were falling apart however as he tried more and more obscure counter spells. He looked up at Albus, "I'm not sure I'm going to be able to remove it today. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm out of ideas, maybe if I get in touch with some friends in the field they could point me toward a solution. I believe we have plenty of time to reverse the curse as it seems stable enough and doesn't appear to be harmful to his physical health. Now if you will excuse me, I've got a class to prepare for." Flitwick hurried from the room to start preparing for the morning lessons.

Malfoy sputtered, he couldn't take it anymore, he had woken up in the infirmary and suffered quite the shock upon realizing that it hadn't been a dream, he really had got beaten by an eleven year old girl. Added to that misery was the fact that he had been stewing about the snot-nosed witch that had cursed him, for the last hour while the professors had been trying counter charm after counter charm to try to break his curse and he was more than just pissed. "Harmful, I'm a bleeding girl, when the ministry hears about this."

Albus shook his head in mild exasperation, "They will of course do nothing." He tried to hold in his amusement at the shocked expression on Malfoy's new face. "It was a legal spell cast during a legal wizarding duel that you yourself started. Furthermore as your father is in Azkaban prison there is no one to bribe the ministry officials into harassing young Miss Rosenberg unlike what you did with Buckbeak. Which was, if I do say so myself, a coward's act. In sort, I believe the muggle phrase that comes to mind is 'suck it up', or maybe it was 'grow up.' Either way you will need to learn to live with being a girl if professor Flitwick cannot reverse the curse. Of course you could always do something honorable and make an honest apology to Miss Rosenberg," Albus noticed Malfoy's face was twisted with anger, "but alas from the expression on your face that would be expecting the impossible. You could of course hope that the med-witches in Saint Mungo's will have better luck than our most excellent charms professor, they are however, quite busy treating real injuries caused by death eaters and such things as actual emergences."

Malfoy couldn't quite bring himself to glare at Professor Dumbledore's stern face so he settled for glaring at the end of the bed. "What am I supposed to do in the mean time?"

"Being that you are at a school that has a number of classes, some of which you are even enrolled in, I would think that the answer was obvious. Professor Snape said to tell you he expects you back in class for his first lesson today. I suggest not being late, he is rather cross at you for embarrassing his house."

"I can't go to class looking like this."

"Well, you could of course try to convince Professor McGonagall to attempt to transform you back but there is no guaranty that the process wouldn't turn you into some freakish monster as the curse's magic warps the spell." Albus smiled as he left the infirmary.

Draco had never experienced a more horrible morning at Hogwarts, even getting beat at Quidditch by Potter was nothing compared to the humiliation and whispered comments that trailed him. It had started in Defense when Snape took ten points from Slytherin for his tardiness. He wasn't sure if he was more shocked at the loss of points or the fact that Snape was ignoring the snickers and silent laughter that was directed at Draco's way.

His morning took a turn for the worse as Snape pulled him to the front of the room as an example of excellent curse work. He had to stand there for fifteen minutes while his peers peppered Snape with questions that were way too personal about the curses effects on him. Even that he could have lived with if it hadn't been for the damn mudblood Granger's supposedly innocent question about if the curse was good enough to have Malfoy bleed every month like a real girl. The horrible mental images that rushed through his head with that question had nearly caused him to faint in front of the class. By the middle of the lesson Malfoy was sure that Snape was punishing him for not confiding in him about Voldemort's mission. By the end of the lesson when he assigned people to write an eight inch essay on what it would be like to be a member of the opposite sex for a few days he knew Snape hated him.

By lunch Malfoy was realizing just how thoroughly the mudblood bitch had dethroned him when even Crabbe and Goyle were refusing to take his orders. It didn't help that the form he found himself in wasn't the least bit intimidating. He couldn't even hex the first years without it getting back to Snape and him racking up hours of detention. It was perhaps not surprising that his every thought through lunch was getting revenge. He forced himself to stay in his seat rather than reach for his wand when the little whore waved happily at him from her seat at the Gryffindor tables. Draco resolved to find her after dinner someplace private and use a few unforgivable curses on her until she broke.

Harry shook his head to clear the insane thoughts of sympathy as he watched Malfoy lose a little bit more of his, or was it her, sanity as Gabrielle taunted him by smiling at him innocently. Harry reflected that it might not have been such a great idea to have the children spend so much hunting time with Spike and Illyria. It had sounded great to start with, give them field experience, give them a sense of accomplishment with little real danger, but he was fairly sure that they were the source of some of his children's more dark personality quirks. He figured he could deal with that if it kept his children alive longer. Though he had to admit that Gabrielle's vengeful side could have been from her mother. He was just glad it only really came out when she was protecting someone else.

Hermione grimaced as she chatted with Ginny about the destruction of Draco's social life. Hermione knew it was a rather common topic of conversation around the tables that would normally interest her greatly but she really didn't want to talk about it at dinner especially when Ginny was going into morbid detail about other possible things to do to Malfoy. She was always a little shocked when Ginny proved herself the most vengeful of the Weasleys. She was just glad that Lilyanne didn't seem as blood thirsty as her mother. Hermione was growing slightly more worried as the topic continued over the dinner that Draco would snap at some point and hurt himself or another. She admitted she was mostly concerned with him hurting Gabrielle or maybe Trista. Her dinner tasted like ash as her mind ran through a number of distasteful actions that Draco might take to get revenge.

As the weeks flew by Gabrielle was more than a bit relieved that the Draco mess was dieing down. Not only was she feeling a wee bit of guilt for ruining Draco's life she had found that the attention she herself was receiving was annoying. She had found that once the shock wore off and people realized that the professors couldn't or wouldn't return Malfoy to his normal form the speculation started. Gabrielle found herself badgered often about how exactly she had pulled off the curse in the first place. Mostly she was tired of getting followed everywhere by her siblings and others in an attempt to keep her safe from Malfoy. She knew she could take him, she'd proven it but that didn't make her sisters leave her alone. Not that she wanted another confrontation with him, but she wasn't going to run away.

She sighed her workload with all her teachers save Binns had gotten so bad that she was working on one transfiguration paper while watching the Gryffindor Quidditch game. It wasn't the best solution but after almost two weeks of not having time to run in the forest she was forcing herself to finish early so that she had enough time to attend the party then sneak off. Her workload from McGonagall in particular had increased from it's already breakneck amount to a level where Gabrielle was very glad she needed almost no sleep otherwise she would have had almost no social life. She had come to the conclusion by the third week of the mind numbingly brutal pace that her professors were trying to work her to death. It was either that or they wanted her to have no social life or chances to get into trouble, she wasn't exactly sure which. She just hoped she could last a few more weeks until the Christmas break.

Draco sighed the only good thing about the whole mess was being allowed her own room. It had only taken waking up one horrifying morning to have Crabbe standing over her body groping at her while she had been sleeping to show Snape that her sleeping in the boys dormitory wasn't in anyone's best interest anymore. She was just happy that Crabbe had gotten himself expelled for that terminally stupid action. Not that anything could make her happy right now, for in her hands she held an object that spelled her certain doom. It was a letter from her Aunt, it said that if she didn't complete her task by the start of the holidays then there was no point coming back. She knew there was no way to fix the cabinet in time. Without anyone to watch for people trying to use it the room of requirement was simply too dangerous to use. He sighed and forced himself to head toward the room of requirement. It was too dangerous not to as well.

Draco was startled as she spotted a person she knew well. She had almost pushed the thought of revenge out of her head but that was mostly due to there always being other people around the Rosenberg bitch and the fact that she had won the duel, even if it was obvious she had used some type of prepared spell or item or something that she snuck past the judges.

Draco wasn't sure what she was thinking when she pulled her extra wand out of her sleeve. At least one good thing had came out of the confrontation with Crabbe, a stolen untraceable wand. She knew her luck was finally going to change. Her mind going over and over the Avada Kadavra spell. She burst into the room and took aim at the girl's back.


	11. What are you?

~I still don't own any of the characters owned by anyone else.

Draco shouted, "Stupefy, stupefy, stupefy." She smiled as the first two spells slammed into the girl's back. Her smile drained off her face as she noticed that the girl spun around to face her. She was becoming more than a little freaked when the third stunner slammed into the girl's chest, it had barely caused her to stagger back a step.

Gabrielle glared at Malfoy as she calmly pulled her wand out of it's sheath, "It's one thing to know you have no honor, it's another for you to prove it. Cast one more spell at me and I'll ignore Snape's pleading on your behalf and rip your soul apart."

Draco's snaky comment dropped from his lips as she watched the girl's eyes change to resemble an inferno of black and blue fire. "Wha'a what are you?" Her back brushed against the back wall in her frantic attempt to get away from the creature before him.

Gabrielle smiled as she turned into a storm of black lightening for the half a second it took her to travel four feet closer to Draco. "I am the wind," She flickered to a storm again only to reform a few steps closer, "I am the rain."

Draco watched in horrified silence as she flickered again.

Her voice boomed as it echoed around the room, "I am the thunder!"

Draco gasped as the girl flickered once more only to reappear with her hand grasping her throat.

"I am the storm. I will wash the death eaters from this land." Gabrielle smiled as she lifted a gasping Draco up with one hand. "Do you want to be destroyed like the rest? Or do you want to live?"

Draco frantically nodded his head that he wanted to live.

Gabrielle sighed as she turned and tossed Draco away from her. She squashed the brief feeling of satisfaction that seeing him crumple on the floor gave her. She scowled down at the pathetic wizard laying in a heap that had caused her father so many hassles because of underhanded tricks over their school years. "So what can you do for me? How can one such as you, help one such as me? How can you atone for the evil you have caused? Give me a reason to not stick a slave collar on you and spank you everyday for fun."

Draco changed her mind about using a wand on her. As far as she knew not even the dark lord could change into a storm. He figured maybe just maybe if he could prove useful she would teach her something that might prove useful later. "I know things about the dark lord's plans."

"Let me guess you're supposed to kill Professor Dumbledore and fix a certain vanishing cabinet so that it will allow all sorts of death eater scum into the school? Does that about sum it up?"

There was more than a hint of desperation in Draco's eyes as she sat up. "It could still help you. You could capture a number of death eaters as they come through the cabinet."

"So you would sell out your old buddies just like that? You really are a rat." Gabrielle summoned every bit of acting skill she possessed and advanced toward him with a malicious grin plastered on her face. "I don't think I can trust you, and well I've told and shown you a bit too much to allow you to live."

"Wait please, I'll do anything, just don't kill me."

Gabrielle felt torn, she felt sick at having to threaten a human with death, not that she would ever kill anything that wasn't a monster or a demon, but she knew Draco couldn't be trusted without some type of binding oath. Her mind flickered briefly to the idea of using Draco to create a new house elf type creature that was slightly more human but she immediately tossed it because she didn't want her house elf to have Malfoy DNA. "Anything? Well now that changes matters, If you agree to swear an unbreakable oath of loyalty to me than I'll do more than let you live, I'll show you powers you can't image."

Gabrielle smiled briefly as she noticed her resolve starting to crumble. "I'll even show you how to change back into a male."

Draco didn't really see a way out of the mess she found himself in. She didn't even flinch much as she felt her skin crawl as the magic settled into her flesh. "I Draco swear to obey Gabrielle Rosenberg until such time as she chooses to release me."

Gabrielle smiled, "See that wasn't so hard." She resisted the urge to order her to do something silly, mostly because she didn't have her camera. "First of all you're going to stop trying to kill Professor Dumbledore. Second when you wake up you're going to find a lot of spells jammed into your head that weren't there before, you will not use them against other students. I'll even give you the ability to change back into your ugly male form."

Draco frowned as she tried to figure out what she meant by ugly male form.

"I'll let you know when there is something else you can do for me other than staying away from Trista. If I find out you bothered her or encouraged others to, then well all bets are off." Gabrielle smiled as he reached her hand down and touched Draco's head. "Don't worry this won't harm you at all."

Draco's head exploded in pain as dozens of spells burned themselves into her brain. He finally blacked out after what seemed like an eternity of pain.

"I never said it wouldn't hurt."

"You enjoyed that way too much, are you sure you're a Gryffindor?"

Gabrielle turned to glance at the disillusioned professor that was just now stepping out form the shadows. "Some of the spells from the books I drank down were filthy, I wanted them out of my head. Anyways, you know he is out cold, you can drop the illusion."

Snape stepped away from the wall as he removed the spell that had hidden him from Malfoy's view. "You know you broke a dozen ministry rules today?"

Gabrielle used her hand to tuck a strand of her strawberry hair out of her face, "Don't really much care. I kept my end of the bargain, Malfoy is still alive and mostly unharmed. Are you going to keep yours?"

Snape sniffed in disdain, "I am a man of my word. As much as I think it's a bad idea, I'll participate in the ritual to kill the headmaster. I don't exactly have a choice, if I don't kill Dumbledore, I die."

"And the address?"

Snape smiled grimly as he passed over a folded piece of paper and a clear vial. "I don't understand why you care where Peter Pettigrew is but here is the address and Veritaserum like you requested."

"Doesn't really matter why I want it."

"Not that it matters but what did you bribe Flitwick with?"

Gabrielle chuckled, "While I would never bribe a professor, I hear he has a particular fondness for Pineapple." She gestured dismissively at Malfoy's body.

Snape just barely stopped himself from blinking in shock as with a casual wave of her hand Gabrielle changed Draco slowly from a girl with elf ears back into his normal male form.

"Now if you'll excuse me I have a paper to write for Defense against the dark arts, I hear the professor is quite cranky when things aren't turned in on time."

Snape shivered slightly as he watched his young student leave. He was suddenly very glad he wasn't a death eater anymore. He glanced down as Malfoy groaned. "You mister Malfoy are barely worth the trouble."


	12. Gift Wrapped

~I still don't own any of the characters owned by anyone else.

Percy Weasley was far from a coward but he wasn't feeling very brave as he stalked through the dark alleys of London's underbelly. He nervously checked his wand holster for at least the fifth time that hour. He wasn't exactly happy to find himself in the dark alleys of London at the best of times. He normally wouldn't have considered personally acting on an anonymous tip about a dark wizard's location but these were not the best of times. With the firing of Fudge his own position was in question. He figured that if he could pull off the capture of a dark wizard then he could use that to gain some influence, influence that he could use to help the order as well as solidify his own position. He still wasn't sure that working with the order was the safest thing but if it helped his family, he would take the risk.

The problem as Percy saw it with raiding a dark wizard's home was that typically the dark wizards weren't afraid of using dangerous or lethal curses on anyone that came calling. Which was why he had invited Auror Dawlish for backup. While he would have loved having someone more trustworthy, it was the best he could do on short notice. Anyone else was either too busy preparing for the holidays, too untrustworthy or too likely to steal the credit if things went well.

Percy Weasley briefly glanced at Auror Dawlish, he was despite his misgivings happy to have some backup on this unofficial raid. He looked down again at the small piece of parchment clutched in his hand. He looked up from the parchment to glance at the dirty address on the old building in front of him. He had found the scrap of parchment waiting for him on his desk that morning. The parchment had an address written in a crisp angular hand along with a hastily scrawled 'Dark wizard's hideout' written below it in a different hand. "This looks to be the place."

Dawlish nodded, walked over to the door, raised his wand in one hand and used his free hand to pound on the door. He wasn't sure what he was expecting but having the door swing open to reveal a dark room filled with the unmistakable sound of weeping wasn't what he was expecting. "Lumos."

Percy twitched as Auror Dawlish's light spell revealed a wreck of a human chained to the wall.

Dawlish gasped as his spell revealed the words "Peter Pettigrew" written in blood above the wrecked man.

Even with the words staring him in the face, Percy could barely recognize the wizard as Pettigrew from some old photographs of the order. That wasn't too surprising considering the dirty state of the man's clothes, the fact that his face was turned toward the ground and cast into shadow and the fact that the man chained to the wall was supposed to be fifteen years dead. He forced the bile back into his stomach as he realized that the man only had chains on three of his limbs the bloody stump that used to be the man's arm was nailed to the wall with an old fashioned railroad spike.

Dawlish quickly stepped inside the room and proceeded to search for any remaining dark wizards. After a brief look around the rest of the ramshackle shack that passed for a home in these parts Dawlish walked back to stand in front of Peter Pettigrew. "You're supposed to be dead."

Peter Pettigrew was barely able to raise his head as he croaked out, "I want to die, please kill me."

Percy turned slightly green as he found himself staring at the bloody holes where the man's eyes should have been. It looked like they had been ripped out of the man's eye sockets recently.

"Don't let the demon come back. He said he was out of practice but just for me he would do his best. Said I was special. I don't want to be special anymore."

Dawlish glanced over at Percy before looking back to Peter, "What happened to you?"

Peter Pettigrew laughed darkly, "Broken."

Percy thought the man's laughter held more than a touch of insanity to it.

Peter chuckled darkly, "I killed them all, all my friends betrayed. Sold to Voldemort like rats in a cage. Can't turn into a rat anymore. She cut my tail and stole my luck, down the rabbit hole I go. Can't see, can't use magic, can't die anymore. Please kill me before the man with the knives comes back. Don't want to see, but the visions still come, even after the nice man ripped my eyes out like I asked. Had to beg and plead for them to vanish. They didn't take the visions with them though. They should have. I want them to stop, please kill me, make the visions stop."

Percy watched as Pettigrew slumped over reduced once again to whimpering. "This complicates matters. Someone obviously left him here for us to find."

Dawlish nodded, "Question is who?"

Percy shrugged, "We take him in, turn him over and wash our hands of this madness."

Spike chuckled as he heard the telltale cracks of wizards apparating. He was relieved that he hadn't asked Illyria to come for this mission. Fred wouldn't have enjoyed the torture and Illyria wouldn't have enjoyed hiding in so undignified a spot as under the floorboards. He figured he would leave that part of the mission out of the reports. Though he figured he would leave a lot out of the reports for this mission. The only thing Spike regretted was that he wasn't going to be able see the shocked faces of the wizards when Peter vanished right out from under their noses. He just hoped that the three hour portkey he had jammed up the guys ass gave the ministry enough time to officially question him. After all this mission wasn't all about having fun, the main goal was to get Sirius proven innocent.

Spike carefully slid the board out of the way before carefully making his way out of the shack. Even if the leaders of the wizarding world were a bunch of idiots he still wanted to make sure he was long gone by the time they sent more wizards to investigate.

Gabrielle sat curled up with her face pressed against the window trying to tune out her siblings' conversations. She watched as the station vanished around the corner as the train sped away from Hogsmeade. She was pulled from her musing by a rather stinky foot being waved in her face.

Rose grinned as Gabrielle absently batted her foot away. "Oh come on, you can't spend all your time looking out the window." She put her foot back on the floor.

"I was just thinking."

"What about?"

"A couple of different things really. Mostly I'm looking forward to seeing mom again."

Trista was slightly nervous about spending the holidays with her friends but as her parents didn't want her for the holidays, due to the full moon falling on Christmas day, it beat staying at the school alone. To be fair they were trying to visit with a number of their extended family that not only lived out of the area but that didn't know about werewolves or magic. Trista tried not to blame them for not wanting her with them.

Lenora smiled at Trista, "Don't worry everyone will love you."

"I'm not going to be a bother am I?"

Leo smiled, "Nah, it will be nice to be able to hang out a bit. Plus we can practice riding our broomsticks."

"I don't have one."

Lillian shrugged, "We have enough extras that it shouldn't be a big deal to find you one."

William sighed, "I envy you guys. I'm stuck going back to the Burrow for the few days before Christmas. Grandma will probably give me a number of chores to do."

Rose grinned, "Sucks to be you."

William shook his head, "I'm just hoping I can stay with uncle George and Fred rather than at the Burrow. At least there I just have to help make things explode."

Lenora curled up and used her sister as a pillow. "Wake me when it's time to change clothes."

Lillian leaned her head against the seat cushions, "Sure, I might try to snag some sleep as well."

Gabrielle adjusted her sunglasses, "You know some times I think not needing that much sleep is a curse."

Rose chuckled, "Stop complaining and drift."

"Fine."

Trista had assumed that she was too nervous to sleep but found herself nodding off after a few minutes of quiet. The next thing she knew she was being gently shaken away. "Huh?"

Gabrielle grinned as the blurry eyed Trista blinked up at her. "Wakey wakey, you should get changed into your muggle clothes."

Trista nodded briefly before simply pulling off her Hogwarts' robe revealing her muggle clothes underneath.

Rose chuckled at the slight look of disappointment on Gabrielle's face.

Willow smiled as she watched the Hogwarts' train pull into the station. She was just glad that she didn't have to brave the crowds on the way out as well. The plan was to portkey to the cemetery in Godric's Hallow and from there walk to the house. She smiled as she spotted the mass of children coming her way. She smiled as Gabrielle ran up and grabbed a hold of her. She returned her daughter's hug tightly. "Miss me?"

"Of course mom. So what's the plan?"

Willow pulled a long piece of knotted string from her bag. "Well first we wait for Harry and the rest to get here then we all grab a hold of the string and travel via portkey to near the family's new home. Just grab a hold and away you'll go. I wonder what's taking the rest of them so long?"

Gabrielle shrugged, "Probably just the gang saying goodbye to Ron and William. They're heading to the Burrow via slide along apparation."

Willow grinned as she noticed Harry, Ginny, Neville, Hermione and surprisingly Luna walking over. "I heard Molly was trying to steal Ginny for the holidays as well."

Ginny scowled, "There is no way I'm going to be mom's slave for the holidays."

Hermione chuckled, "It's not that bad."

"I don't see you volunteering."

"I well, I have my own preparations to make if I want things to go smoothly for the clan dinner. Besides this is the first Christmas we get to spend with my folks."

Willow glanced at Luna, "It's good that you could come Luna, you too Trista."

Luna smiled, "Thank you, Daddy is off at a conference anyways."

Trista nodded nervously, "Thank you for having me."

Willow nodded as she made sure everyone had a hand holding onto the string before activating it.


	13. Ward Issues

~I still don't own any of the characters owned by anyone else.

Gabrielle landed in a crouched stance her hands sinking into the fresh snow. Her eyes flashed crimson few a second as she sniffed at the air and glanced around the cemetery angrily a few times before allowing the snow filled landscape to wash some of her aggravation away. She rubbed at her arms in frustration. She hated to travel via portkey, they always made her feel like her skin was trying to tear itself off her body and crawl away. She would have much rather just had Rose teleport her or take a portal, hell even traveling via storm cloud would have been more fun, even if it did tend to leave her hair slightly damp and take longer. She spared a glance at her father as Rose helped Trista to her feet.

Harry Potter didn't notice his daughter's interest as he was busy looking around the cemetery with interest. He pulled himself together and gave his wife a smile when he caught her looking at him with a bemused look on her face.

Harry finally noticed Gabrielle rubbing her arms, "I'll come back later and look, but right now it looks like some of us could stand to get out of the cold."

Ginny returned the smile, "You can always come back later and pay your respects."

Harry nodded, he had gotten so used to being able to talk to his parents in their portraits that he could almost forget the fact that his parents' bodies were rotting in a grave not more than twenty feet from where he was now standing. "Right, lead on."

Willow chuckled as she set off toward the house by way of the village. She was glad to have her children back if only for the holiday break. She had missed her children's laughter badly. She had thought it would be like sending them off to camp but as the days stretched into weeks and the weeks into months she had had to force herself to stay busy so that she wouldn't just rush to Hogwarts and steal them back. She just hoped they were having a good time.

Rose was delighted, the town was lovely though that could have just been because of the fresh coat of snow that gave everything a pure and almost enchanted look. She loved the bright Christmas lights that adorned the houses. Her gaze flickered between the different muggle houses as the group walked along the path. She briefly wondered if her mother would let her visit the stores in the morning just to see what they held. She stopped as Trista let out a small gasp. She glanced over at where Trista was looking. "It's an impressive work of magic that conceals the statue."

Harry shrugged, "It's fitting, we should get going though."

Luna noticed that Lenora was staring open mouthed at the statue. "Did you eat a nargle? You have that look on your face."

Lenora blinked, "What? No, I don't think so at least, I was just suddenly reminded how famous dad is."

Gabrielle was slightly relieved that Trista appeared to have missed Lenora's comment. "Hey I bet Dobby will have hot chocolate brewing, last one there is a rotten egg." She grinned even as she took off running.

Leo grinned even as he took off running after his sister. While he didn't really expect to catch up with Gabrielle, he wanted to beat the rest of his siblings. "Come on slowpokes."

Lenora and Lillian pulled an amused Luna with them as they took off running after Gabrielle.

Rose muttered, "Stupid dress." She hiked her dress up slightly with one hand so she could run. She reached out with her other hand and snagged Trista's hand. "Let's go."

Willow watched with amusement as the rest of the children took off running after Gabrielle. She knew they didn't have a hope of catching her, but they were putting forth a good effort. She smiled and reached out and clasped Hermione's hand. "So how did they do at Hogwarts?"

Hermione chuckled, "Top marks, and they appear to have made some friends."

Willow grinned, "Tell me everything."

Harry rolled his eyes, "I'm going to go supervise the kids."

Ginny chuckled as she watched Harry run off like a kid shirking chores. She was just happy that Harry was holding up so well after returning to Hogwarts and the wizarding world after so many years away. He had needed the break so badly back then, though she had to admit that everyone had needed a break after the horrible experience in the ministry. She was just hoping that their holiday plans went off without a hitch. She wasn't sure about having the whole family and friends gathered in one place but at least she would get a chance to hang out and relax for a couple of days before everyone got there.

Gabrielle stopped short as she approached the large stone wall that surrounded the land where her grandparents had been killed. She could feel traces of her mother's magic as well as traces of other strange non-wizarding magic on the walls and the gate. The wall looked to be made of some type of shiny black stone. She was impressed with the near seamless way the large stones fit together. She looked closer at the stones as she caught a hint of movement in one of them. Now that she was paying attention she could just barely make out arcane designs flowing beneath the surface of the stone. Her gaze swept over the large metal gate as she waited for her siblings to catch up. It looked sturdy enough to stop a rampaging dragon, that is if you didn't simply open the massive gate and let it walk through.

She would have to ask Uncle Xander when she got to the house how the walls had been made and why there were a number of strange black metal dragon claws lining the top of the wall every ten feet or so. She thought they were neat but couldn't figure out why they were there. As her gaze fell on the slightly overgrown hedges she fell in love with them. They easily and artfully blocked the line of site from the road to the property with the way the path twisted. She loved the slightly overgrown hedges that blocked the view of the house as it also meant that no one could see inside the grounds from the road. She had been afraid that she couldn't run around without her clothes for fear of the neighbors complaining. She couldn't wait to see the rest of the grounds.

Leo was only slightly out of breath as he finally reached the gate just slightly ahead of Rose and Trista. He had had to sprint the last hundred yards just to keep ahead of them. He glanced at the large forbidding stone wall. The thing felt a little creepy to him, as if its magic was slightly off. He had to admit that it looked like a formidable wall. He guessed that it was at least ten feet thick and had to be a good thirty feet tall. He was rather impressed with the metal work on the black iron gate though he was slightly curious where the lock was supposed to be. There was nothing more than a blank plate in the middle of the gate where the two halves met. He figured the lock must be some magical lock that Willow or Dawn had cooked up.

Rose let go of Trista's hand as she stopped a few feet from where Leo and Gabrielle were looking the walls over, "You sure this is the place? It looks a little scary."

Gabrielle sniffed at the air, "Mom said it was a walled property with a large gate. You see any other property around here that has Mom's magic and matches the description? What happened to the twins?"

Rose rolled her eyes, "They were running with Luna, she isn't exactly in as good of shape as the rest of us. Most people can't sprint for half a mile let alone a mile."

Trista grinned as Gabrielle looked at her, "Werewolf, makes certain things easier, especially around the full moon."

Leo watched the twins come jogging up the path with an out of breath Luna trailing along.

By the time Harry reached the children he was silently thanking the council for forcing watchers to maintain a minimum amount of physical fitness. As it was he was still slightly out of breath when he reached the wall. He could sympathize with Luna as she good-naturedly tried to force more air into her lungs by breathing deeply. He felt like glaring at the smiling little munchkins that didn't look at all out of breath. Not even Lillian, who normally came in the slowest of the children, looked winded, though he supposed it was because she had only been jogging at Luna's pace rather than competing against her sisters and brother.

Rose frowned at the door, "So can we open it already?"

Harry chuckled, "Willow says it's keyed to each member of the family. Just put your hand on the door and it should open."

Rose reached out and placed her small hand on the large metal plate. After a second the door swung open without even a squeak or groan. She was impressed that the gate didn't even make any noise as it came to rest against the walls of the short tunnel. "I guess that means we can enter." Rose stepped through the gates and started down the tunnel.

Gabrielle's smile was wiped from her face as she stepped into the tunnel and staggered drunkenly. She placed one hand against the wall as she fell to her knees. She bit back a gasp as she felt the magic wards ripping into her painfully. She could barely do more than curl up into a ball and cry in pain.

Rose turned and shouted in surprise as her sister collapsed. "Gabrielle?" She frantically looked around for a cause. As her quick look didn't show anything wrong with her sister physically, she opened her mystical senses as wide as she could trying to figure out if there was a mystical cause. She had to force herself to not take a step back as she felt her sister's unshielded power for the first time in years.

Leo ran up to check on his sister, "What's wrong with her? Dad!" He turned back to look at Harry.

She ignored Leo's frantic questions as she put her mind to work on looking past the blinding crimson light that was her sister. She knew her sister was more powerful than she was but still, "Bloody hell," she hadn't really understood just how much more until now. As she concentrated harder she was able to 'see' past the blinding light and was able to get a better picture of her sister. She was however more than slightly surprised as her sister's image wavered and changed before her eyes. It was the little details that she noticed first, Gabrielle's fingernails were some type of dark purple almost black crystal, her eyeteeth were much longer and sharper looking than normal. Her hair was blood red and her eyes were flickering between her normal green and a pulsing green that was too bright to be normal. The largest surprise other than the fact that her skin was even whiter and paler than normal was the strangely pulsating design on Gabrielle's chest that looked to have been penned with some psychedelic color changing ink that glowed brightly. Rose tried to ignore the pulsing tattoo as she went back to searching for the real problem. She was more than a little shocked as she realized just what the changes to her sister's aura meant and why she was being attacked. She briefly wished that Willow wasn't so far away or that her dad knew more about Gabrielle's style of magic.

She wasn't sure why the wards were being stupid but she knew that at this rate they would either kill her sister or her sister would rip them and grounds apart when the pain finally made her lose control. Rose wasn't going to let that happen to her sister so she did the only thing she could think to do, she pulled deeply on that fragment of her own soul that held the unique powers she had inherited from her mother. While she couldn't do the same things as her mother they were still related. She reached out with her raw power, wrapped it around the strand of magic attacking her sister and traced it back to the keep. She felt along the magic until she traced it back to the crystal for the temporary wards and tweaked it so that they unlocked for Gabrielle.

Gabrielle gasped for breath as the pain stopped, she could still feel the wards but they weren't ripping at her essence anymore. She couldn't seem to stop sobbing even as her dad pulled her into a hug.

Harry wasn't sure what had gone wrong with the wards, but as he was holding his crying daughter in his arms he was going to find out. "Rose since you don't seem affected can you run to the house and get Dawn to turn the wards the hell off. Leo find Willow and get her here now."

Leo and Rose took off running.

Trista nervously watched Gabrielle and the tunnel.

Willow wasn't sure what to think as Leo came rushing back down the path as fast as his legs would carry him but whatever it was flew out of her head as Leo shouted for her attention, "Willow, Gabrielle got hurt by the wards come quick." Willow didn't even hesitate as she called on her magic and flew toward the house as fast as she could."


	14. Dead man walking

~I still don't own any of the characters owned by anyone else.

Rose found herself trying to tune out the occasional raised voice that drifted through the thick wooden doors that sealed her tower off from the rest of the complex. The adults were apparently still more than a little upset by what had happened to Gabrielle. They didn't shout very much but when they did they tended to be rather loud.

Despite her worry over Gabrielle she found herself looking over her new room with interest. It didn't really look like she had been expecting it to. While it was tastefully decorated with a few stuffed animals as well as pictures from her old room, it didn't really have the feel of a child's room. The walls of the tower were made out of the same magic hardened smooth black stone as the outer walls. She was just glad the walls were black and not pink or some other horrid color. She did wonder what enchantments the parents had used in order to get the large crystals set symmetrically into the ceiling to glow. She watched the crystals grow dimmer as she twisted the crystal dial on the wall plate. She shrugged, there were a lot of things she would have to ask her parents about this place once they weren't in panic mode. She twisted the dial back the other way and smiled when the crystals brightened. She thought the enchanted switches were cool. They were certainly prettier than the muggle light switches she had seen on TV.

The bed was a large four posted monstrous creation that looked as if it could swallow her whole. The sheets were done in red with some gold colored trim. Not the most tasteful of color combinations but it made the Gryffindor part of her swell with pride. She would have to thank which ever adult had been the decorator.

She grinned as she wandered over to the large bed and flopped down on it. It made the room seem a little more lived in, which was silly when she thought about it, as the bed barely took up one edge of the large room. Still she was happy that someone had made the attempt as she was a little bit scared about having her own room. She slide off the bed and walked over to stand in front of her new dresser. She ran her hand over the oak dresser feeling just how smooth the handcrafted wood was. She smiled as she thought of how much effort Uncle Xander would have had to put into the dresser to make it so smooth.

She smiled as she gently slid the top drawer open and found a few silk shirts and various other garments. She smiled as she sorted through the clothes, some of them actually looked useable. She chuckled as she found a few garments that could only have been picked out by Auntie Willow. Still they might be useful if she needed to hang out with her extended family. They weren't too bad just rather plain and normal, in other words boring.

She grinned as she noticed all of the open space. She could just imagine all of the various ways she could finish off her room. Her eyes fell on the stairs leading to the second floor. Her mom had said that all three floors of the tower were hers. Being that she really didn't want to overhear any more ranting from the adults, she figured now was as good a time as any to explore.

She quickly ran up the stairs anxious to see what the second floor brought. She knew that her siblings were probably having fun exploring the place the same as her, well other than Lilyanne who had already spent a lot of time here. Lily had been way to smug about something, not that she had had a lot of time to talk to Lily with everything else going on. Still she would have to figure out what she was so happy about. She shook her head and pulled her thoughts back to the present. She glanced around, off to the left was a large bathroom. Rose smiled as she poked her head into the bathroom and glanced over at the lovely shower. She giggled, it looked large enough to fit all of her siblings in it at once. "I so have to test this out once I finish exploring."

Her eyes lit up as she stepped into the main section of the second floor, it was mostly open space with a number of sturdy tables pushed up against the wall. "This would work perfectly for a workroom."

She danced up the stairs to the third floor. She stopped as she stepped onto the landing. Her mouth dropped open in shock, where the other two floors were built entirely of black stone the third floor was crafted with a mix of black stone and some type of translucent stone or crystal. The glow from the translucent parts illuminated the tables in the room wonderfully. The most impressive thing was the large number of old fashioned glass faced bookcases that lined the walls. The wood and glass looked new even if the style was old fashioned. Apparently her uncle had been extremely busy over the last several months. She sauntered over to the only bookcase that had any books in it. She carefully opened the case and looked the books over. Some of the books were books from her room in the Nexus but others were new to her. She picked up the sticky note attached to one of the new books.

"Rose, we collected a few books from your private library and I added a few books that Willow thought you might like. Thought we would make your second home as nice as your first. Love Mom."

Rose smiled, 'I'm sure she has already copied everything out of the books that she wanted, but at least I'll have something to read. Hopefully the shouting has died down enough to see what the others think of their rooms.'

Willow was trying hard not to explode, she was so frustrated with everything right now. She really wanted to be in the other room ripping the ward crystal apart herself to figure out why it had malfunctioned so badly. Not only did it trigger against her daughter who should have been included in the people the wards allowed in they had tried to kill her instead of sending out a warning like they were supposed to. Her hands were shaking so badly from fright and anger that she knew that Dawn stood a much better chance of actually getting something useful out of the crystal rather than just burning it to a crisp in a fit of rage. Not that Dawn was much calmer than she was, but at least she wasn't shaking like a new watcher on her first mission.

Xander leaned against the door, "You can't do everything Willow. There's no way you could have known that the ward crystal was defective."

Willow used her hand to wipe at her puffy tear stained eyes, "If I'd went over it with a fine toothed comb… I was too distracted planning the family's gathering and putting the finishing touches on everything else."

"The team from the council looked over all of the materials the keep was built out of including the ward crystal, they didn't find anything either. You're not a goddess Willow, no matter how much that would sometimes help. You can't be everywhere nor can you do everything. When we find out who did this then we can go after them."

Willow nodded, "It might turn out to be just an accident."

Xander raised an eyebrow, "With our luck?"

She shook her head, "Probably not."

Dawn wanted to melt into the ground, it had taken an hour of painstaking work to strip the layers of enchantment the crystal contained but she had found the reason the wards had acted the way they had. She really didn't want to have to tell her wife that the ward crystal hadn't malfunctioned and that by all rights Gabrielle should have died when the wards' energy tried to fry her. Dawn wasn't exactly sure why Gabrielle wasn't dead but she was very glad she wasn't.

Xander noticed Dawn standing in the doorway first, "Tell me you have some good news?"

"I wish I could, the crystal didn't malfunction, it was designed to kill her."

Willow's knuckles went white as her hand tightened on the table edge. "Who, how and why?"

Dawn shook her head, "You're not going to like it." She pressed on before she lost her courage. "As for the how, it wasn't until I took the crystal apart that I noticed a single human hair coiled inside the crystal. There is no way that would naturally be possible so I did a spell to find the owner of the hair, it's Gaby's. Someone somehow acquired one of her hairs and placed it in the ward crystal. Probably so that it was keyed to her. They designed the crystal to slowly collect and store magical energy and then unleash it in one great blast at it's target."

Xander blinked, "That sounds like a lot of work."

Willow nodded, "That would take a lot of time and skill."

Dawn nodded, "As for the who it would take a decently powerful dark witch to enchant the crystal. As for the why, I have no idea."

Xander frowned, "I'll contact Giles and see if he can have his people track down where exactly the crystal came from."

"Please find out who tried to kill my daughter." Willow's voice was so eerily flat that it sent chills down Xander's spine.

He watched Willow storm from the room, "That went better than I expected."

"I'm going to go check on Gaby and send Hermione up to our room to make sure Willow has a shoulder to cry on."

Xander nodded, "I'm going to go tell Giles that someone in his organization is a dead man walking, because if Willow doesn't kill them I will."

Leo glanced up at the door when he heard the knock. "Just a minute." He hurried over to the door and opened it. He wasn't sure who he was expecting but a naked and wet haired Gabrielle holding an amethyst comb wasn't it. "Aren't you supposed to be tucked in bed?"

Gabrielle shrugged, "Dawn cleared me for light activity, besides I couldn't sleep."

Leo stepped out of the way and gestured for her to come in.

She slipped in and looked around, "It's much the same as mine."

Leo nodded, "Probably the same as the others as well. I'm guessing a work room and private bathroom on the second floor?"

He grinned and shut the door. "Yeah, third floor is a weird glowy room with weapons and practice dummies."

Her mouth almost cracked into a smile, "Mine has quite a few plants in it as well as an open area with sand for casting circles. There is even a shallow stone pool that I can use for scrying, it's perfect. The plants were probably Neville's suggestion."

Leo chuckled, "I'm glad you're feeling better Gaby."

"The shower helped, through I still feel icky." She looked around for a second before spotting a wooden chair. "Do you mind brushing my hair?"

Leo rolled his eyes, "You know if it wasn't down to your bottom it wouldn't be so hard to take care of. Not that I mind but don't you normally have Rose or Lenora do that?"

She sighed as she handed him the comb and walked over to the wooden chair. She straddled it and faced away from Leo. "I normally do but I don't feel like being touched right now."

"You know I'm going to have to touch your hair to brush it, and maybe even your back."

"Yeah I know, but you aren't going to run your hand down my back and… well you get the picture. I don't really want to go there right now."

Leo stared at her sister, she was never one to pass up cuddling with her sisters. "You're not okay are you?"

"Not really, it hurt a lot Leo, my skin still doesn't feel quite right, Dawn said it's all in my head but… can we drop it? Just let me relax and brush my hair."

"Fine, so any ideas what we should get everyone for the holiday party?"

Gabrielle relaxed her shoulders slightly as her brother started carefully brushing her hair. "I don't know, I figure I'll try to go to the store tomorrow, that is if mom doesn't lock me away in my tower to keep me safe."

"I'm sure she will calm down at some point."

"Probably when we are old and grey."

Leo chuckled, "Maybe so."

After a few minutes of quiet Gabrielle looked around the barren walls, "You know what this place needs?"

Leo shook his head, "Nope what's that?"

"Some portraits of cute naked girls."

Leo chuckled, he was just glad that Gabrielle seemed to be making an effort, even if it was a little forced. It made him sort of glad that Lenora and Lillian had Luna to distract them as it meant that they were unlikely to want to do any cuddling with Gabrielle for the near future at least. He wasn't nearly as worried about Rose bothering Gabrielle about cuddling. Oh she wasn't opposed to cuddling with Gabrielle she just never started it. Well not that he knew of anyways. "If you know of any good ones."

"I'll let you know." Gabrielle swung her leg around and sat in the chair facing Leo, "Do you think we could hang out? Maybe watch a movie?"

"I guess now is as good of time as any to test out the new entertainment system. Zombies or cars?"

"Anything as long as it isn't a stinking romantic comedy."

Leo raised his eyebrows, "I'm offended that you think I even own anything like that."

She grinned, "Uh huh, I know you have a copy of Disney's lady and the Tramp somewhere hidden."

"Hey mom got that for me when I was like five. It's not my fault I kept it."

"Sort of is."

"Brat."

"Boy."

"Girl."

"Better than a boy."

Leo shook his head, "Now you're just being silly."

Gabrielle grinned, "Maybe, but I still win."

Leo wasn't going to push the old argument tonight, he figured Gabrielle needed to win at least one thing after the mess with the wards. Instead he walked over to the entertainment system and picked out one of the Die Hard movies. He knew that she wasn't supposed to watch any of the Die Hard movies but figured with everything else going on no one would have to know. The last time she had watched the movies she had picked up a few choice phrases her mother didn't appreciate her eight year old daughter saying. Uncle Xander had had to give a long lecture about how it wasn't appropriate for a little girl to swear like a drunken sailor. Leo remembered how Xander had barely been able to keep a straight face.

About fifteen minutes after starting the movie Gabrielle was out like a light with her head resting in Leo's lap. He sighed, "Ah well at least the movie is good."


	15. Night time wandering

Albus Dumbledore shivered as he used his good hand to pull his hood tighter against the chill of the night as he ducked under the snow covered archway. He smiled briefly as he looked around the graveyard. The whole area was covered in fresh snow that sparkled in the moonlight. He was faintly surprised to see a ghost walking along the graves. He'd expected the place to be empty this time of night, he hadn't counted on ghosts for company. He smiled as he noticed the footprints the 'ghost' was making. He thought, 'Ah perhaps not a ghost after all.' He coughed politely to get the girl's attention. "A little late for a nighttime stroll isn't it Miss Rosenberg?" His eyes twinkled with amusement as he watched his student spin around in surprise. Her body faded even further until little but her face could be seen.

Gabrielle was more than a little surprised that she had been spotted at all let alone the fact that Dumbledore still seemed to be looking right at her. She might not have been putting her full concentration on maintaining her invisibility but it had been years since she had had to in order stay invisible to most demons and magic users. She knew from her dad's stories that Professor Dumbledore had been able to tell when someone was under her father's cloak but she had always just assumed that it was some vague sense that something was hidden, apparently not. Her ghostly form slowly bled into color and form as she relaxed her magic. "What gave me away?"

"Ghosts normally don't leave foot prints."

"Rats, I'll have to keep that in mind for next time I'm sneaking around a snow covered graveyard."

Professor Dumbledore looked down his long crooked nose at her, "One could ask why a young lady such as yourself is sneaking around graveyards."

Gabrielle fiddled with the edge of her cloak, trying to stall for time as she tried to get her thoughts in order. "I was just reminded how strange life can be."

He nodded as he realized that she was looking at James and Lily's grave. "Come to pay your respects?"

Gabrielle nodded, "It's weird, before the start of the year I'd only ever been to this world once, I'm beginning to understand why."

Albus raised an eyebrow.

Gabrielle shook her head sadly, "I don't think my dad truly likes it here. There are parts he likes but on the whole… The muggle world was marred by the Dursleys, Hogwarts was marred by Voldemold's continued existence and the looming danger. I was so happy to be able to go to a real school with other children my age that I didn't even think what coming back to the school would be like for him. Sort of selfish of me, wasn't it?" She sighed, "Anyways, I didn't understand that even in a school of magic I was still going to be different." She smiled sadly as she conjured a pair of roses with a flourish of her hand. She carefully set the white rose on Lily's grave and the black on James's . "You must think I'm silly for putting flowers on graves of people I know still exist."

He smiled, "Just because someone is physically gone doesn't mean they are removed from our hearts. It is our choices that make us who we truly are. I don't think silly people would show as much loyalty to family and friends as you have. You chose to stand up for your friend even though you knew doing so would make it harder on yourself." He leaned down slightly as he grinned, "And just between you and me, being normal is highly overrated."

Gabrielle smiled, "Thanks Professor. I shall leave you to pay your respects." She smiled as she headed back toward the house feeling curiously lighter of mood.

"Thank you."

She called back over her shoulder, "Mom says dinner is at three o'clock."

Albus's smile almost slipped as his damaged hand twitched painfully, he allowed himself a brief look to check how much the blackened flesh had spread up his arm before allowing his sleeve to fall back over the blackened flesh. He had barely finished running his good hand over his sister's gravestone when he heard a faint crack like muted thunder behind him.

Snape glanced around in distaste at the snow. He looked around the familiar graveyard with a grimace. "You called?"

Dumbledore inclined his head, "How are our preparations coming for my death?"

"Well enough to leave the wizarding world shocked when the great and powerful Albus Dumbledore doesn't return to the school after the new year." Snape noted with some sarcasm.

"You and I both know that my time is almost at an end. Just promise me you'll keep the castle safe."

Snape nodded, "As always, I'll do my duty."

Gabrielle jerked herself out of her wandering thoughts as she came to the edge of the wall surrounding her new home. Her hand trembled slightly as she raised her hand and touched the stone wall. In her head she knew that the wards that had hurt so much had been taken down and that there were just a few temporary wards in place that wouldn't do anything to her but it was hard to convince her heart that she wasn't going to get another blast of evil magic for stepping through the wards.

She glanced balefully at the gate before pulling her magic around herself as carefully as she could to hide her from sight and smell. She glanced up at the top of the rather large wall. "Stupid anti-flying magic wards, even dumber anti-teleportation wards." Contrary to this world's anti-apparition wards that she could slip through without a problem the house's anti-apparition, anti-teleportation, anti-phasing and anti a bunch of other things wards actually could keep her from using magic to cross the walls. She sighed before taking a running leap at the top of the large wall. She barely caught the top of the wall with her fingers. Before her hands could protest too much at the contact with the cold stone she pulled herself up onto the top of the wall.

'This is the last time I sneak out the night before a full moon when were-creatures are running around the yard.' She smiled as she caught sight of a group of large animals playing in the snow. They looked harmless from this distance but she knew that if she was spotted Lupin and Harry would have their paws full trying to stop Trista from trying to kill her. She frowned as she tried to place the various creatures. The large white wolf in front stalking around the snow was surely Lupin, the smaller wolf following him around like a little puppy had to be Trista. She grinned as she recognized her father's large black wolf form rolling around in the snow. Her gaze was drawn to the rather large orange tiger. Seeing her mom's animagus form always made her think of Sylvie. 'I should probably get back before the rest of them notice I'm gone.'


	16. Firsts

Trista yawned sleepily as she looked around the small tool shed she found herself in. The first thing she noticed was that she was warm despite lying on an old mattress with only an old itchy wool blanket for cover. She sat up and groaned, there were some disadvantages to being a werewolf, namely sore muscles and aching bones the next morning. She worked on massaging her left shoulder as she glanced around the shed looking for the source of the warmth. She shook her head as she couldn't find it. "Must be magic." She sighed as she picked up the tattered remains of her blouse, "Rubbish." She glanced around hoping to find anything useable to get back to the house without freezing or being seen without her clothes.

Rose smiled as she knocked on the door to the tool shed. "You decent?"

Trista hugged the blanket to herself, "Not really but as I don't see my clothes anywhere, you might as well come in."

Rose smiled as she used her boot to push some of the fresh snow out of the way of the door so she could sneak inside. She smiled briefly as she noticed that Trista was naked other than the worn blanket that only mostly covered her.

Trista shivered as a gust of cold air swirled around the inside of the shed robbing it of warmth. She looked hopefully at Rose, "Please tell me you have some extra clothes?"

Rose quickly pushed the door shut to keep the cold out. She smiled as she pulled a bag out from under her cloak. "How much do you love me?"

"Lots and lots." She smiled at Rose, "Please, before I freeze to death here."

Rose smiled as she tossed the bag to Trista, "You know Gabrielle would have insisted on a show before she tossed you the bag."

"Yeah well she is an evil, evil girl. By the way where is she?"

"She wanted to come but had to help her mother with some stuff in the kitchen so I snuck out to help you out."

Trista nervously watched Rose stare at her few a few seconds, "You aren't going to turn around are you?"

Rose smiled, "Do I have to?"

Trista shook her head even as she started to blush, "You really want to see, don't you?"

Rose nodded nervously half afraid that Trista was going to hate her or think she was a complete freak, "I'll… you hate me?"

Trista shook her head, "It's not like I have anything to see, I'm just..,"

Rose could feel her heart race, "You're just you, you're special." She bent down and knelt in front of Trista. She reached out a hand and brushed a lock of Trista's hair from in front of her eyes.

Trista wasn't sure what she was thinking, a part of her was saying that her friend was crazy, another part, the part that was a little girl that was still dealing with the feelings of rejection and hurt caused by her lycanthropism wanted nothing more than to be loved. She could feel her friend's hand lightly brush her face as Rose tucked her hair behind her ear. Trista nervously bunched the blanket up and set it to the side. Her voice nervously broke, "You, you can look." She had to stop herself from gulping as Rose ran her finger tips down the back of her neck slowly.

Rose tried to calm the raging voice in her head that told her to bug out and run as she whispered softly, "And touch?"

The blush that had been creeping over Trista's face burst forth like a wave of fire. "And touch."

Trista's shiver had little to do with the cold as she arched her back into Rose's touch. She closed her eyes and relaxed as Rose's fingers trialed along her back. She took a deep breath as she felt Rose's fingers ghosting along her bum. She briefly considered moving her friend's hands back to some place safer when she felt something brush her lips. She opened her eyes and blinked as she found herself looking into Rose's lovely green eyes up close. Her beast stirred briefly as she felt her friend's tongue run over her lips.

Rose's frantically beating heart slowed a little as she felt her friend returning her kiss. She carefully worked on lowering Trista slowly to the mat as she continued kissing her.

Trista was slightly surprised to feel her back hit the mat, at least until her friend's fingers trailing down her chest distracted her. She wasn't sure what to think as Rose switched from kissing her lips to licking her face. It felt a little weird but it wasn't unpleasant, far from it, especially as Rose brushed her nipples with her fingers.

By the time she switched from nuzzling Trista's neck to using her tongue to play with her friend's nipples, Rose could tell that her friend was more than a little lost in the sensations.

Trista arced her hips as she felt something brush between her legs. She was feeling more than a little fuzzy and euphoric as she heard her friend's voice softly ask, "May I play?" Trista nodded her head vigorously as she felt Rose's fingers rest on her crotch.

Rose continued carefully rubbing her friend's soft skin as she whispered a pain reduction spell under her breath. She carefully pulled out a white handkerchief from her pocket. She just hoped Trista was a bit too distracted to really notice the handkerchief as she slipped her index finger carefully inside her friend.

Gabrielle wasn't sure if she wanted to scream, cry or shag herself as she was rocked by the emotions billowing from the shed. The snow that had been threatening all night started falling with a vengeance as she knelt in the cold snow and tried to deal with the emotions washing over her. She had just finished helping her mother in the kitchen when she realized that her friend would be waking up in the shed alone. She had collected a few things and rushed out to rescue her friend. She had almost reached the door when she had felt the emotions streaming from the shed. She had made the mistake of opening her mental shields, she had barely made her way around to the back of the shed when the waves of pleasure washed over her. She was so conflicted she couldn't decide if the tears freezing on her face were happy tears for her friend's pleasure or tears of pain for herself. She barely even noticed the cold nor her dropped bag as she knelt in the snow and cried.


	17. Attack of the snowball

~~I still don't own any of the characters from the shows~~~

Gabrielle had just barely pulled herself together emotionally when she felt a snowball hit her in the back. She twirled around ready to scream at whoever had tossed the snowball at her. Her scream of rage died on her lips as she recognized the person despite the girl looking like a cross between a laundry basket explosion and the abominable snowman. Her layers of mismatched clothes were caked with snow. "Sylvie!"

Sylvie smiled, "Hey, you do still remember me."

"What are you doing here?"

"I travel all this way via portal and all I get is what are you doing here?" She pouted even as she tossed another snowball at Gabrielle, "Pelting you with snow, silly." Sylvie watched her target twist and slide out the way of her snowball faster than most shifters could have managed. "Well crap, guess I need more snowballs." She tossed her last snowball at Gabrielle then made a frantic dash for the corner of the shed trying to get enough cover to have time to make at least one more snowball before Gabrielle could retaliate.

Gabrielle wasted no time in starting her own snowball collection.

Willow chuckled as the two snowman look-a-likes walked into the entryway. "You two had better go get changed so we can start opening presents soon. Besides, auntie Buffy is supposed to be getting here by portal soon. She'll want to see all her munchkins."

Gabrielle nodded, "Be back in a bit mom."

Willow grinned as she watched her daughter and friend head off down the hall. She headed off toward the portal room.

Gabrielle was barely across the threshold of her tower before she started stripping off her wet clothes and leaving them in a pile on the stone floor. "You should probably get out of yours as well."

Sylvie closed the door behind her. She worked on extracting herself from her collection of layers as she gazed around her friend's room. She smiled when she noticed some of her own artwork on her friend's wall. She was slightly surprised by the lovely crystal frames that surrounded her work. She wasn't sure her work justified such expensive frames. They did however make her artwork even better so she wasn't going to complain.

Gabrielle smiled as she watched her friend strip down to her undies. "So why did you hit me with that first snowball?"

"You looked like you needed some cheering up, so what happened?

Gabrielle sighed and flopped down on her leather couch, "Rose and Trista…"

"Hey that's great for Rose… Why aren't you happy for her?"

Gabrielle looked away from her friend, "I am happy for her it's just…"

Sylvie blinked, "You're afraid she isn't going to like you anymore aren't you?"

"What Trista?"

"No silly, Rose."

Gabrielle blushed, "That's ridiculous."

Sylvie grinned, "You're just afraid that now that she has Trista to play with she isn't going to mess around with you, aren't you?"

"Well the twins have been entertaining Luna… and they haven't wanted to do anything."

"Have you even talked to them about it?"

Gabrielle shook her head.

Sylvie sat down on the couch next to Gabrielle, "I'm not even going to try to say I understand how everything works between you and your siblings as you make shifters look modest, but give them some time it's only been a couple of days. Just because you get a new toy doesn't mean you are going to throw out the old one. With a little bit of time I'm sure things will work out.

"I guess I was acting like a cry baby wasn't I?"

Sylvie holds her hands about a foot apart, "A little bit."

"Brat."

Sylvie smiled, "Maybe so, but we should get changed."

Gabrielle smiled, "Do I have too? I'm having too much fun just sitting here."

Sylvie rolled her eyes, "Lech…"

"Details."

Leo tried to fight the blush that was threatening to creep up his face as he found himself silently reading the note that was attached to his gift from Lexie. 'Nookie movies, share with your siblings.' He could feel all of the eyes in the room on him as he quickly palmed the note and carefully tucked the dvd case in his stash of already opened presents. "Thanks Lexie."

Lexie grinned, "Don't worry you'll love them."

Gabrielle snickered, "Movie night."

Arthur Weasley frowned, "Those are muggle movies?"

Lexie chuckled, "Yeah latest thing, don't worry I got you some documentaries on old muggle technology. I've even set up a DVD player for you to watch them on. You just have to push play.

Buffy glanced around the room large room filled with Willow's friends and family. It had come as a bit of a shock when she realized she was the outsider. At first she hadn't been sure how she felt about being on the edge of the party but as she looked around and saw the life her friends had built without her, she suddenly felt the desire to be a part of her friend's lives again. It wasn't that running around with the immortals wasn't a kick, it was, it was just that she hadn't realized how much she missed the scoobies until she had seen them laughing and joking as they passed out packages. They looked good, at peace with themselves in a way she hadn't seen for years. Now if she could just figure out a way to step back into their lives without causing them pain she would take it in a heartbeat. "Who's next?"

Lily smiled as she handed Breena a brightly wrapped box, "I think Breena is next."

Breena smiled, "From you?"

Lily looked slightly embarrassed, "And Gaby and Rose, I couldn't quite get the enchantment to work by myself. Just open it."

Breena grinned widely as she pulled out a sparkling light blue dress. "It's lovely."

"It's charmed to change into whatever clothes you might find yourself needing, anything from a sundress to Jedi robes. I had to get help on having it do more than a few changes before running out of juice."

"Might be a long time before I need Jedi robes but thanks all the same." She smiled brightly at Lily.

Fred turned and looked at George, "Why didn't we get changeable clothes?"

George smiled, "I think because we would look rather horrible in a dress."

Xander snickered, "Because robes look nothing like a dress."

Willow chuckled, "Behave, as for your present, I believe that Gabrielle has something for you."

Fred looked at George slightly concerned, "How do we know this isn't some type of trick."

George shrugged, "We don't really."

Gabrielle grinned as she handed Fred one of the packages from the pile, "Don't worry, your present is completely safe."

Fred took the package from Gabrielle, "Alright." He held it out to George, "You can open it."

George shrugged and opened the package.

Fred looked cautiously inside at the box only to find that a strange blackish goo lined bottom of the box, "Ah Gabrielle what is it?"

"It's a mutagenic alien life form that eats people and takes over their bodies."

The whole room burst out with various things like "What! And you didn't, and where the hell did you get that?"

Gabrielle tried really hard to control her laughing as the room full of people glared at her. "Relax it's just charmed Play-Doh, here let me see it." She reached into the box and pulled out a large hand full of the goo. She looked directly at the goo, as she spoke in a firm voice. "Puppy." The audience was slightly shocked when the goo changed shape into a small black puppy complete with a wagging tail. "See nothing to worry about." She waved her hand over the puppy sculpture. "Return." The puppy melted back into it's formerly shapeless self. She carefully returned the goo to the box that it came from.

Fred and George looked at each other then Gabrielle, "Wicked."

She smiled, "Thanks, I try."

Buffy couldn't help but chuckle, "As long as it's not something we are going to have to slay. So who's next?"

Gabrielle grinned wickedly as she handed Buffy a very long narrow box from the pile of gifts. "You are."

Buffy looked her box over carefully.

"Relax it's from Bodewhin not me."

Buffy relaxed and tore into her package with glee. Her grin turned into a full blown smile as she pulled out a well crafted sword. "Thanks guys."

Bodewhin smiled as she looked over at Violet, "It was a group effort."

Buffy nodded, "Still it's a most impressive blade."

Violet smiled, "It's nearly indestructible as well, though knowing you… well nearly is probably the best we could hope for."

"Hey I haven't broken that many weapons over the years."

Dawn coughed something that sounded suspiciously like "Liar."

Buffy grinned good naturedly as Giles started working on opening his present, she had missed this type of family connection the last few years. The immortals were great but Christmas just wasn't the same without children and presents to spice things up. Besides Adam was a pagan, if left to himself he would just assume pull a beer out of the fridge, make something that passed for a sandwich and watch a game rather than celebrate the death of a fictional character. She and Duncan had tried for many years to convince him that it was more about the celebration than the reason behind it, but he could be a bit stubborn. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she was startled when she finally noticed that the only one left in the room other than her was Xander, everyone else had already finished opening their presents and drifted from the room to put things away or head outside.

Xander smiled, "A penny for your thoughts?"

"Is a penny even worth anything these days?"

He smiled, "Probably more than the random jumble in your head, what's wrong?"

She sighed, "I feel old."

Xander blinked, in some ways he still thought of himself as the goofy kid he was when he first met the slayer. He knew that he had added a few lines and changed a bit from his high school years. Not a great deal in the last several mind but still he looked a little different. It had been nearly twenty years but she still looked nearly the same as the first time he had seen her. "Old, what do you mean old? You look the same as you always have…"

She nodded, "and I shouldn't Xander."

The inkling that had been building these last several years that something wasn't quite right with his Buffy came back in a rush. He had pushed the knowledge that her new world moved faster than his to the back of his mind. Her visits every few months had allowed him to believe that the time discrepancy wasn't static that it somehow was less most of the time. "How long?"

She smiled, "You always were smarter than we gave you credit for. Look don't tell the others, please. I just need a vacation back in our home world… some place with magic and demons to hunt."

"It was the spell wasn't it? We did this when we brought you back didn't we?"

Buffy shrugged, "I'm not sure… It might have happened anyways. Slayers are filled with demonic energy Xan. The creatures I've stopped, all of the magic… the essence spell…" she stopped and stared at Xander, "You haven't changed either."

Xander turned his head slightly away, "Now that's just crazy talk."

"No really, you look the same as you have since the hellmouth closed."

Xander sighed, "Willow explained it once when she had had too much to drink a few years ago. Too much energy that day on Kingman's bluff. It changed things, changed me somehow. The next morning she didn't remember bringing it up, I've never asked for more information, please don't. She has enough guilt from that time in her life. You should spend some time with Giles, he misses you. I don't think running the council is much fun without you."

Faith watched Buffy leave the living room from her spot in the opposite hall, she was fairly sure that she hadn't been seen. She waited a few seconds then stepped into the room. "You still miss her don't you?"

Xander grinned, "It's just not the same without her."

Faith nodded, "Yeah, but did you have to lie to her?"

Xander shook his head slightly, "Which part?"

"The part about Willow getting drunk, you know as well as I do that she hasn't been able to get drunk in ten years."

"Yeah but it sounds better than by the way the dimension that your old best friend has been living in for years causes people to become more magical and mutate in odd ways."

"Oh please, I'm not Buffy, you can't tell me you don't enjoy being slightly more than human."

Xander smirked, "I don't enjoy being slightly more than human."

She rolled her eyes, "Okay you can tell me but I'm not going to believe you."

"So what do we do if we get her back?"

Faith smiled as she drained her wine glass, "Same thing we do every day pinky, try to take over the world."

"Shouldn't that be save the world?"

Faith's face lit up with a smile, "See that's why we need Buffy back, she helps keep us straight on the little details."

"Save the world, take over the world, bit of a difference Faith."

"Maybe so, right now however I have several hours before dinner so I'm going to take advantage of the fact that Logan is visiting and have some wild kinky sex."

Xander shook his head, "Isn't that what you and your new girl have been doing for the last two weeks?"

Faith grinned, "You're point?"

"So where is your new girl anyways?"

"Probably out having a snowball fight with the kids."

"Go have fun with Logan."

Xander had a brief minute of regret as he watched Faith's behind as she sauntered out of the room.

Buffy sat at the window of one of the empty rooms watching the children's snowball fight. It was just her and Willow in the room, so much and so little had changed that she wasn't sure where to start. "Do you think Giles would want me back?"

"I thought you liked running around with Adam?"

Buffy sighed, "I do, I did but I've been dreaming lately."

"Slayer dreams?"

"Don't think so, just my subconscious telling me that I'm missing the fight and missing friends."

"If you really want to come back there isn't anything stopping you. Giles would love the help, he has been feeling his age lately."

"He isn't that old."

"No but ten years of dealing with crappy politics will do that to you."

"I'm sorry I stayed away so long."

Willow shook her head, "You needed the break, hell we all needed the break."

Buffy found her gaze returning to watch the children, she was fairly impressed by the sheer number of snowballs Gabrielle was dodging, "You sure she isn't a slayer?"

"As sure as I can be."

"What are you going to do when she wants to go out demon hunting?"

"Hand her a sword and tell her to have fun."

"You can't be serious, it's not her destiny."

"She might not be a slayer and it might not be her destiny but it's her choice. She isn't going into it blind, hell she knows the risks better than we did when we started. As much as I would love to wrap her in cotton to keep her safe I can't, and I wouldn't if I could."

Buffy shook her head, "Why?"

"Because if I tried to stop her she would still go."

Buffy rested her head against the window frame. "When did life get so complicated?"

Willow smiled, "Well for me it was when this short blonde haired girl came to my high school."

"Brat."

"Yeah maybe, but it's good to have you back."

"Now I just have to get Giles to take me back."

Giles chuckled from his spot by the door, "Somehow I think that will be the easy part."

Buffy blinked in surprise at not having heard the door opening. "How much did you hear?"

He grinned, "Just the part about life getting complicated. I would have to agree that it all started back in Sunnydale, though actually running the council took it a few steps further." He smiled at Buffy, "Of course I would welcome some help."

Buffy swung from her spot on the window seat and marched over and pulled Giles into a hug. "I'm sure we can straighten out your council members in no time."

"Yes quite."

Willow glanced at the two of them, "Go find someplace and have a nice chat. I think I'll go see how the preparations for dinner are going."


	18. Dinner and a movie

~~I still don't own any of the characters from the shows~~~

Gabrielle was only half paying attention as she passed the bowl of delicious smelling homemade rolls to Rose. Her attention was riveted on the platter of rare steak. "Steak, please."

Lexie couldn't help but grin at the hungry look on Gabrielle's face, She held up the carving knife, "Pass your plate and I'll get you some." She smiled as she placed a few extremely rare cuts of steak on Gabrielle's outstretched plate. The rest of the rare cuts were going to end up on Willow, Lupin, Trista and Sylvie's plates. "Anything else?"

"Not right now."

Lexie chuckled as she noticed the lack of vegetables on Gabrielle's plate. "Mash potatoes don't count as vegetables, at least try some."

"I will, promise, right after I finish my steak." She couldn't help but grin as Lexie shook her head and went back to dishing up the meat to the rest of the children.

Gabrielle tried to ignore the odd looks from some of the Weasleys as she dug into her rare steak with gusto. She wasn't exactly sure what their problem was, at least she wasn't licking the blood off the plate like some times. Despite what Rose sometimes said she did have some table manners after all, besides the rolls worked well enough to soak up the blood.

Rose was glad that dinner was early as it gave her a chance to eat with the weres before the moonlight forced them to flee to the courtyard. She could tell that Trista was getting twitchier the closer to her change it got. She glanced over at Sylvie, she didn't seem quite as jittery as Trista but that was to be expected as Sylvie had been a weretiger her whole life.

Sylvie was just glad that a glass mug had been found for her and Trista, as well as non-silver silverware. The sheer amount of silver laying around the tables was making her as twitchy as a vamp in a catholic church. Back home no one had much silver just laying around, it was just too dangerous. Even at Angel's place there wasn't very much silver due in part to the number of were-creatures that lived there. She couldn't help smiling as she watched Gabrielle soak up the blood on her plate with her roll. Just the smell of the blood was making her beast stir.

Lupin glanced nervously at the large grandfather clock out of the corner of his eye as he watched Sylvie lick her lips with a hungry expression on her face. "I think if the children are done, we should probably get the were-munchkins out to the shed."

Sylvie carefully squeezed Gabrielle's hand for support, slipped out of her chair and stood up. "I'll catch you in the morning."

Rose gave Trista a comforting pat on the back, "We'll save some desert for you."

Trista nodded, "Thanks."

Dumbledore smiled as he watched the children and Lupin leave, "I should leave as well, get back to Hogwarts for the feast. I would hate to miss my last feast there."

Molly frowned, "Don't talk like that Albus, I'm sure you will enjoy many more feasts."

"Perhaps but I think my time at Hogwarts is coming to an end, as much as I wish it were otherwise. I can only hope that the ritual Mrs. Rosenberg is attempting tonight will help slow the curse."

Willow nodded, "Take your time with your goodbyes we don't have to start the ritual prep work until an hour before midnight."

Albus nodded, "It saddens me that I will not be able to finish the mess with Riddle but the curse is growing by the day. Snape's potions are doing less and less and taking more out of me. I can barely move my arm anymore. No, I think that without a great deal more luck than I deserve, tonight shall be my last night on this earth. But do not despair for I gladly go to chase adventure in the next life." He smiled at the group gathered around the table before looking at Dawn, "If you would be so kind as to help an old man back to Hogwarts."

Dawn nodded, snapped her fingers together and created a portal back to Hogwarts. "Have fun."

Mister Weasley watched Dumbledore step through the portal. He was only half paying attention to the comforting words he was using to try to calm his wife down. Of course he had known that Dumbledore's time was growing short but he had always held some hope that some discovery would change things. But hearing the certainty in Dumbledore's voice had crushed his last shred of hope that his friend would survive the night. The ritual that was supposed to cure the headmaster was probably nothing more than a way to ease his pain. That would explain why they hadn't been invited to witness the ritual. A large part of him was glad that he was being spared the pain of watching his friend die. Now if he could just convince his wife of that.

Mr. Granger was enjoying the feast much more than he thought he would. It had been a bit strange sitting down for dinner with a bunch of wizards that he had up until today only heard stories about. While he was used to hearing about magic from his daughter, he wasn't used to people using magic around him at least not for such trivial things as stirring a frying pan. He was beginning to understand just how much most witches and wizards depended on magic. He was more than a little overwhelmed with all of the magic shop talk going around the table. He briefly wondered if this was how his daughter felt when he used to invite dentist colleagues over for dinner.

Xander grinned as he noticed the look of bemused confusion on Mr. Granger's face, "Don't worry just smile and nod at some point they'll remember that we don't understand them and move on to different subjects."

Hermione chuckled as she watched her mother carefully distract Mrs. Weasley with questions about her favorite wizarding foods. Apparently her mother had noticed that Molly needed a bit of distracting. She was just glad that no one had brought up Gabrielle's odd food preferences nor her wife's. Now if they could just survive the rest of the night without some major catastrophe she would be very glad.

Gabrielle finally had a better understanding of just what Uncle Xander meant when he used the expression 'It's like watching a train wreck, you just can't look away, no matter how much you might want to.' Right now she wasn't entirely sure if she wanted to bury her head in her hands like her brother was doing or avidly watch the sight taking place in the middle of her room. It had started innocently enough with the siblings and cousins plus Breena gathering back at her room after dinner to watch a movie. Gabrielle let her thoughts drift back to how the mess started.

She had barely opened the door when her youngest sister and her friend rushed past her giggling, claiming the pool table by dragging a large comfy blanket over the top of it. The twins had quickly commandeered the couch, while Rose and Leo worked on dragging the large leather reading chair over to where the DVD player was. Gaby and Raisa looked at each other for a brief second before making a dash for the comfortable bed. Apparently they had both had the same thought and had decided that the bed was softer than the floor. Raisa giggled as she blurred past her cousin in a burst of inhuman speed. Gaby mock pouted as she flopped down next to her cousin. "That's so cheating."

Raisa stuck her tongue out playfully at her older cousin, "So is magic."

Gaby rolled her eyes, "So what movie are we watching?"

William grinned from where he was kneeling down sorting through the movies on the shelf, "We should watch the one Leo got from Lexie."

Gabrielle glanced at Raisa, "I'm not sure that's a great idea."

Raisa pouted, "Spoil sport, how bad can it be?"

Gabrielle frowned she remembered that she had tossed up a few token protests but looking back she knew that she had wanted to see what was on the disk as much as William did. She almost wished she hadn't gone along with it now. If she had seen the nervous looks on the twins' faces she probably would have called it off, instead she had waved her hand and dimmed the lights. William took that as the okay and loaded the DVD before flopping down on the sheepskin rug in front of the screen.

Looking back it hadn't been the multiple very young naked girls in the home movie doing all sorts of things both naughty and cute to each other that shocked the group, or rather it was but only indirectly. It had shocked her more than a little when little noises had caused her to glance back and see her youngest sister laying on the pool table with her hand down her friend's pants. Her squeak of surprise when she noticed Gaby staring at her had alerted the rest of the room to what was happening on the pool table. No, all of that, Gabrielle could have dealt with, the disturbing part was the multiple 'No!s' that came from various girls and William when Lilyanne had noticed the attention and asked, "Do you want us to stop?" Even Raisa had screamed no, the only one that didn't say anything was Leo but that was to be expected as he was too busy trying desperately to focus on Breena and not his sister.

Gabrielle knew she was going to hell for enjoying watching her youngest sister being stripped and tongue ravished by her girlfriend as her siblings watched with fascination, she just couldn't force herself to care, that is at least until she heard the door creak open.

Author's note: I hope I didn't offend people too much, my muse wrote this last part rather than the spell used on the headmaster, like I had been planning. I'm hoping to get that out shortly as well.


	19. Like pulling a rabbit out of a hat

~~I still don't own any of the characters from the shows~~~

Illyria strode into the room, her eyes slid over the motionless humans in the room before they landed on Gabrielle. "You are running out of time."

Gabrielle sucked in a breath as she quickly glanced around the room filled with her motionless siblings. "We never have enough time, not when we really want it." She gestured around the room, "I'm guessing this isn't a social call?"

"I do not understand you, you plan to work a massive spell tonight, even knowing that it will push your precious mortality further from your grasp. And for what, a fictional character that came to life because of uncontrolled magic?"

Gabrielle brushed her fingers softly along Raisa's motionless face. "I believe the word you are looking for is compassion."

Illyria tilted her head slightly as she glanced around the room, "Beings such as us, have no time for such human things. Finish with your human concerns, complete your spell, then plan for what happens when you can no longer hide what and who you are. What will you do when your friends turn on you?"

Gabrielle sighed, "I don't know, but until then I'm going to enjoy the time I have with my family."

"And after?"

"Don't know." Gabrielle watched as Illyria turned and walked from the room. She muttered, "At least she could have shut the door."

Rose brushed her hair out of her face, "Just be happy she opened the door without smashing it."

Gabrielle blinked as she noticed that Rose was the only one moving, "Why aren't you frozen?"

Rose grinned, "Don't know, it could be that I'm too powerful for such simple magics to affect, or it could just be that she only froze the mortals in the room. With her who can say. She is wrong about something though."

"What's that?"

"I think I can speak for all of us when I say we aren't going to abandon you just because you aren't human."

Gabrielle sighed, "I'm as human as you are."

Rose chuckled, "Maybe you are but that still doesn't mean much. I mean hello, my mother is an immortal key to existence, bound to be side effects."

"Do you think she is right about the spell for restoring Dumbledore's youth and health?"

"Would it matter if she was?"

"I guess not, besides I was never overly fond of the idea of growing old and wrinkled."

Rose chuckled, "I don't think most people are. How long before the rest come out of it."

"Shouldn't take too long now that Illyria isn't in the room maintaining it. What are you going to do when they come out?"

"I figure we have enough time to finish the show then we had better hot foot it out to the casting circle."

Rose frowned, "Can I ask you a serious question?"

"I guess."

"Does… my _playing_ with Trista… is it going to hurt our friendship?"

"We aren't friends, we're sisters… Just because you ninja'd her before I could, doesn't mean I'm going to hate you for life or anything."

"Just a few weeks?"

"Haven't decided."

"Would it make you feel better if you got Raisa first?"

"Marginally."

Rose quickly shut the door with magic as she noticed the rest of the people in the room start to stir. She sent a thought telepathically to her sister, 'Just make sure she enjoys it.' She smiled as she turned her gaze back to her youngest sister on the pool table.

Gabrielle was trying very hard to contain her giggles as she and Rose hurried as fast as they could without running toward the spell chamber.

Willow eyed the girls strangely as they hurried into the room. "You are almost late."

Gabrielle glanced around at the various spell casters, "Sorry we got caught up in our movie night."

Willow nodded, "You can tell me all about it later but right now you need to take a minute and pull yourself together, that is if you still want to help."

Gabrielle nodded trying not to let the excitement overflow. She knew that the only reason her and Rose were being allowed to participate in the ritual at all was because they had enough magical energy stored up between them to keep her mom from having to use stolen power or pull power from the earth. Taking the power from the earth wasn't really a good option as it would further bind the professor to the world. Not exactly the best idea when they were planning on sending him to a different dimension. It had taken everything the family had to convince the old white hat to go through with the ritual in the first place, they didn't need to cloud things with more complications.

Rose blinked her eyes a few times trying to get used to the dim candle light. She glanced around as her sister tried to calm down from her emotional rollercoaster. She took a minute to glance around the room. The candles spaced around the room gave the people a more fearsome cast than she was normally used to. Well, other than professor Snape, but he always looked a little bit scary to her. The large casting circle filled with white and black sand was brushed perfectly flat. The flickering candlelight did little to soften the look of the black stone walls nor did it ease the feeling of dread the star formed of black sand gave her. It was hard to believe that in just a few minutes this world would lose one of it's best wizards. She tried to push her thoughts to the back of her mind as Willow-mom cleared her throat.

"I had hoped to find another way, but any other way I can think of touches too much on the dark arts."

Snape shifted slightly uncomfortably as she mentioned the dark arts, he had been the main push to find a different ritual once he found out what his roll in this one would be.

Albus smiled looking at Snape for a second before returning his gaze to Willow, "While I do not think I'll enjoy the ritual I am looking forward to being able to explore new worlds. What is a little pain next to the chance of a lifetime?"

"A particularly Gryffindor outlook if ever I have heard one." Snape rolled his eyes.

Albus chuckled weakly, his smile turned into a frown as his gaze turned to the girls, he had been against including them, wanting to spare them the pain of seeing the ritual, he still felt bad that in a moment of weakness he had allowed Willow to sway his resolve. He was just glad that the girls hadn't had to see Snape hack his arm off after a rather grueling spell sealed the corruption inside of it. "Perhaps, we should start the ritual."

Willow nodded, "Albus, if you would be so kind as to get into the center of the circle and lay down."

Gabrielle watched as Albus carefully lay down on the sand face up with his arms spread wide and his legs spread to line up with the star. She couldn't help but take took notice of how his sleeve lay flat giving testament to him having already lost his arm. She just hoped that nothing ever did enough damage to her to warrant cutting off her own hand. She pulled her self back from her gruesome musing as she noticed that Willow-mom and Rose had both already stepped up to their spots. She stepped up a brief second before Snape finally stepped up to his spot.

Snape's gaze lingered on the empty spot across from him. Willow was at the head of the star while the girls were at the base. His own placement wasn't a complete mystery, though he wasn't sure if his placement was more because he had to stab his friend in the heart or for some other arcane reason. He guessed in the end that it didn't matter. They had gone over the basics of the ritual many times over the last several weeks so he wasn't overly surprised that each of the girls were clutching something in their small hands. He knew that each of them were offering a sacrifice of something personal to help power the ritual. He wasn't used to practicing magic like this but after what she did to his dark mark he wasn't about to voice his reservations.

Willow took a deep breath then let it out slowly, "Spirits of death, spirits of life, please except our offerings." She carefully slipped her pocket knife out of her pocket and carefully nicked her thumb with it. She let two drops of blood fall into the sand. "Blood for death."

Everyone felt the chill in the air as a voice so low as to be almost unheard whispered, "Heaven."

Rose carefully let a blood soaked handkerchief fall to the sand, "Blood for innocence lost."

Gabrielle smiled briefly as she dropped a blood covered dagger on the sand, "Blood for mortality lost."

Snape hardly even paused as his dagger bit into his hand, "Blood for friendships past." Several drops fell before he placed a cloth over the wound to stop the bleeding.

Albus could feel Willow's magic settling over him, his pain filled limbs slowly grew numb as the magic washed the pain away. His vision was growing dim around the edges. It took all of his willpower just to clutch the phoenix tail feather tightly in his one good hand as Snape finished his speech. While in that moment he wanted nothing more than to let the darkness take him, he instead summoned up the last of his strength as he heard Willow ask if he had any last words. He had already written letters to everyone he could think of, the only thing he could think to say was, "Lemon drop?"

Gabrielle briefly wondered if Professor Dumbledore had said that to make it easier for Snape to stab him. She figured it couldn't have hurt as he had with one quick motion plunged the sword into Dumbledore's chest before stalking toward the door. No one had been really sure how long it was supposed to take for him to come back, so it was more than a little surprising when his body burst into flames a mere five seconds later.

Snape stopped as his hand was about to rip open the door to leave. He turned and watched as flames died down revealing two naked youngsters, one a boy with long flame red hair who would have looked right at home in one of his first year classrooms and a young red headed girl of maybe five curled up next to him sound asleep. Snape was more than a little shocked that the ritual worked in the first place. While he hadn't really doubted her power he was fairly sure there were few if any wizards or witches that could have pulled off such a massive spell as to return an old wizard to his youth as well as regenerate a limb completely. His normally brilliant mind failed him as he worked back over the ritual and everything he had learned about it trying to figure out what had gone wrong. "Who?"

Willow smiled, "The only girl he ever loved, what's the point in immortality if you have no one to spend it with."


	20. Into the Realms of Fantasy

~~I still don't own any of the characters from the shows~~~

Willow glanced over at where Dawn was curled up on the couch. "I suppose you think that the girl's plan for dealing with the death eaters is extreme?"

Dawn shook her head, "I don't know, I'm more worried about the girls spending so much time in one of Rose's worlds. I want to have faith in my daughter but her ability to create gateways into fantasy worlds is still rather new. What if the construct breaks while they are in there? What if they get too attached to one of the fictional characters in there and their ideas about how to bring them into the real world don't work? Or worse what if they do?"

"You're worried about the moral issues aren't you?"

"Aren't you? Seriously Willow you should be, hell we all should be. They are basically planning to toss people into a fictional world in order to have enough balance of life force in order to pull fictional characters out in their place. I know we aren't going to toss innocent people in but where is the line?"

"Oh I don't know maybe killers and genocidal maniacs?"

Dawn sighed, "If you really felt alright about this you would have talked about it with Dumbledore rather than send him along to Middle Earth as fast as you could."

"Fine you want me to tell Gabrielle to scrap the plan? That she should just turn all of the death eaters she wants to capture over to a government so filled with corruption that they are likely to be able to buy their way out of prison?"

"Yes, no, I don't know. I just don't like the idea of our girls running around without supervision in a world that is extremely dangerous. Have you looked at the world they want to go to?"

Willow snickered, "I've looked at it, it has a number of dangers but honestly you and I both know they are in little permanent physical danger in one of Rose's worlds. The most that could happen would be emotional scaring and that can happen anywhere."

Dawn sighed, "Fine, I still think it's a bad idea but they do need the combat experience. Do you think Hermione will go for it?"

"As long as we can downplay the danger and emphasize the learning potential I think we can bring her around. Besides, if everything works out they might just bring back something to turn the tide against Voldemort."

"I guess, besides it's not like we can stop them from exploring the limits of Rose's new powers. I'll have Lexie tell them operation cabinet trap is a go."

Draco Malfoy was not happy about the plan he found himself a part of, he was barely able to keep from jumping at any little sound as he lead a large group of death eaters through the vanishing cabinet in his manor. He worked on keeping his eyes on the floor, all it would take would be one of the death eaters using magic to search his memories in any dept and the plan would go to hell. Luckily or unluckily none of the top death eaters were a part of the group. On the upside it lessoned the possible number that had the skills needed to get past the wards Gabrielle had placed on his mind, on the downside they weren't really removing any of the really important people from the ranks. He wanted to laugh as he walked out of the cabinet and into a large warehouse filled with dusty tomes and broken bits. He had to hand it to Gabrielle the illusion was impressive, it looked vaguely like the room of lost things in the chamber of secrets. He just hoped it would fool the death eaters long enough. He set off at a slow pace toward the door as the rest of the death eaters filtered into the room behind him. He wasn't sure if he wanted things to go well for the death eaters or badly. However, he had long since given up caring what happened to them, mostly because they had caused his family to fall from grace and they supported a half blood pretender. The fact that a few short months ago he had been eager to join filled him with disgust not because they were evil but because he now understood just how sloppy they were. He hadn't been informed of more of the plan than his part in getting the death eaters here. He half figured the rest of the plan was probably some type of hair brained noble Gryffindor thing where they jumped out and asked the people to surrender. He wasn't really expecting underhanded trickery, therefore he was faintly impressed when the whole room exploded in light at least for the second he was still conscious.

Gabrielle grinned as she finished stripping the various death eaters down to their undergarments. She glanced up when she finished tossing the last of the death eater's clothes in a large pile. "So now what?"

Lexie chuckled, "We should probably hogtie them to make sure they don't get away just incase they wake up before we can get them to Rose's new world."

Rose smiled, "Not a bad catch for an hour's worth of work. Depending on how many Gringotts' keys you find we might have netted ourselves a good chunk of gold."

Lexie couldn't keep her smile off her face as she shook her head, "How did you trouble makers get into Gryffindor?"

Gabrielle shrugged, "I was too honest for Slytherin."

Rose chuckled, "Plus we're brave."

Leo ignored the games as continued his silent watch over the prisoners just incase one of them woke early.

Lillian rolled her eyes, "Mental more like, besides I'm not a Gryffindor I'm in Ravenclaw."

Lenora snickered at her twin, "Just means you weren't smart enough to avoid being stuck in the stuffy house."

Gabrielle tried to tune out Lillian's mutters as she started working on hogtieing the various death eaters. "On the up side we caught three dozen death eaters which means we can probably each take several people out with us when we leave."

Lexie frowned, "Any idea of an exact number?"

Rose shook her head, "Not really, it's mostly theory craft right now. So I suggest we limit the amount of people or creatures we steal from there until we know the exact ratio as I wouldn't want to get stuck in there."

"Just bring your Auntie Lexie a souvenir."

Gabrielle nodded, "If we can find something I think you'll like, I'll be happy to bring it back."

"I still can't believe the parent's are going to let you go on this adventure alone."

"You're just ticked that you don't get to go."

"Only a little bit, but I have a lot of other things to keep me busy while you run around having fun, such as looting these Death Eater's accounts."

Gabrielle chuckled, "Better you and Nymphadora than us for that. Don't worry if everything goes according to plan, we should only be gone a few hours or days at most."

Rose smiled up at Lexie, "You can come the next time."

"Alright fine, let's get the prisoners tossed into the other world then I can get to having lunch and start sorting the loot." Lexie shook her head as she ran her gaze over the collection of Death Eaters sprawled around the room.

Rose smiled as she pulled a fist sized green crystal globe out of a pocket in her robes. "This is the focal point for the fantasy world. Once we open the portal and go through we'll be trusting you to put it some place safe Lexie."

"It will be as safe as I can make it."

Leo shook his head, "Wait, you never told us what we were going to go once we got to this new world."

Rose grinned, "Well I took a quick trip into the world yesterday in order to set some things up."

Leo frowned, "Does mom know?"

"That I've been to that particular world? Yeah, that I took a trip there yesterday? No." She looked at Lexie, "No telling on us either, otherwise I'm not getting you a souvenir."

Lexie shrugged, "I don't see a reason to worry your folks, besides they would just yell at me for not watching you more carefully."

"Anyways, I took all of the parents there for a short trip before Christmas so they could run all sorts of magical tests on the world created by my new power. Before you jump down my throat about why I didn't take you first, I wanted the parents onboard first."

Leo continued glaring, "What about yesterday?"

"I was just acquiring some supplies, it's nothing you have to worry about. Besides the twins and I will be dealing with the prisoners which leaves you and Gabrielle to head out monster hunting. Don't worry you get the better deal, after we deal with the prisoners we are rushing off to the new world's magic school."

Gabrielle chuckled, "Come on, just think of the monsters we will be able to catch, it's going to be so much fun."

He rolled his eyes, "Fine."

Rose smiled as she carefully used the stone as a focal point to call forth a portal into the new pocket world.

By the time the twins, the thirty six prisoners and one still unconscious though unbound Malfoy were unceremoniously tossed through the portal Gabrielle was more than ready to jump through herself. "Just let me reset it so you end up in the right place. The room is paid for the day and you will find your supplies there as well. There are also a few more specific directions as well. Enjoy your stay."

Leo sighed, "I have a bad feeling about stepping into a world created by my evil sister."

Gabrielle mock frowned, "Wait, I thought I was your evil sister." She grinned as she pushed him through the portal. "Just make sure you come find us at some point."

Rose grinned, "Of course, I can't let you too have all of the fun."

Gabrielle jumped through the portal.

Rose grinned as she reset the portal, "They are off on the adventure of a life time."

Lexie chuckled, "Just stay safe, I don't want to have to come rescue you."

Rose chuckled, "No worries, I unlike the rest can always just leave if things go wrong." She stepped through the portal still chuckling softly to herself.

Lexie reached down and carefully picked up the green crystal as Willow flipped the hood of her, really Harry's, invisibility cloak off. "I still can't believe I'm letting them just run off on their own adventures. I must be the worst parent ever."

"Kids grow up, it's a fact, nothing you can do about it."

"I know a spell or two…"

"Using dark magic to keep them as children, now that would win you the worst parent award right quick."

"Spoilsport."

Lexie stuck her tongue out at Willow.

"Promises, promises."


	21. Pokegirl What?

Gabrielle grumbled as she fell out of the portal only to smash her shins on a chair someone had left in the middle of the small inn room. The first thing she noticed after taking a brief minute to rub her shins was a large pile of gear piled on the table pushed against the wall. She turned around as she heard a soft beeping noise. "Find anything interesting?"

Leo fiddled with the pokedex in his hands. "You could say that, but I don't think you'll like it. Hell I'm not sure I like it, and I know a lot of guys that would kill to be here."

She frowned, "Okay, I know Rose wouldn't dump us someplace completely horrible, so what's the good news bad news assessment?"

"According to Rose's notes, the bad news is we are in a post apocalyptic world that seems to be a twisted mix of pokemon and one of Lexie's henti porn movies." Leo held up a small hand held piece of electronics that looked like an oversized P.D.A. made out of a red plastic. "Apparently this device holds records of most types of pokegirls, Oh, sorry that was part of the good news. Anyways, back to the bad news, the monsters in this world are all female sex crazed creatures, some of which would rather eat you than look at you."

Gabrielle sighed, "Any other bad news?"

"Yeah, Rose signed us up as Tamers."

Gabrielle looked confused, "Like monster trainers?"

"Yeah except you have to have sex with the monsters to bind them to you and you are supposed to go out into the wilderness and catch ferals."

Gabrielle blinked repeatedly as she tried to process that, "Why in the hell would we do that?"

"Two reasons actually, first you can sell captured ferals, and second apparently on this world they use the monsters to fight the other monsters. If the pokegirls don't get enough sex they enter a feral state and lose a large amount of their reasoning ability."

Gabrielle sighed, "Please tell me that's the worst of the news?"

"There is also the slight problem of us being technically underage, so according to Rose's notes we are supposed to lie about our age."

"How old are we supposed to be?"

Leo sighed, "Legally in the Blue League you're supposed to be fifteen to be a tamer."

Gabrielle shook her head as she looked at her half brother, "What the hell was she thinking, there is no way you're going to be able to pass as three and a half years older. Hell even though I'm tall for my age I don't see how I'm supposed to pass for fifteen. I don't exactly have the bust to be fifteen."

"Yeah well I don't know." Leo snapped at his sister, "I've only been here a few minutes longer than you. I swear this is the last time I ask Rose to pick the vacation spot."

"Sorry, I know it's not your fault, I just wish she would have told us more about the world up front. We'll just have to use magic to look a little bit older I guess. Anyways what else does her notes say."

He looked the notes over for a few seconds, "Not too much, the rest of the notes talk about a few different things, T2's, Stat ups, and finally Tabs."

"She is making even less sense than normal, can you maybe summarize?"

Leo rolled his eyes, "Sure, she left us some sample's to get us started on our quest, though sadly no pokegirls." He jumped off the bed and walked over to the desk with all of the stuff piled on it. After searching around for a few seconds he pulled out a small box and opened it before showing the contents to Gabrielle.

She glanced down at the two small metallic stones that rested in cotton. "They don't look that impressive what do they do?"

"Apparently as near as I can tell from her notes they are some type of memory encoding device that teaches various powerful magical abilities or skills to the pokegirls."

"Let me guess they don't work on humans?"

"Sadly no, though they unlike the rest are reusable."

"And the rest?"

"Well apparently she gave us two doses of medicine designed to permanently increase the durability of a pokegirl. Don't ask me how it does that. Her notes just say to acquire the stuff any time we find it for sale. We also have two doses of something that is supposed to increase the frequency a pokegirl can use one of her special abilities."

"Do I even want to know what tabs do?"

"Not tabs, Tab it's a drug or dust or something that is supposed to permanently increase a pokegirl's physical or mental abilities depending on the version. Apparently it's from a magical meteorite or something. Other than to not have them overdose on the stuff, she doesn't say much about it."

Gabrielle ran her fingers through her hair, "Remind me to spank the shit out of her when we see her next."

"Sounds messy." He held up his hands in surrender as she glared at him.

"Now you're just being gross. So assuming we want to be pokegirl trainers how are we supposed to get our first one? I suppose they expect us to walk into the wilderness and capture one don't they?"

Leo grinned, "Nothing so horrible as that, well I guess we could do it that way but it might be a little suspicious if our first pokegirl was feral. I mean after all they might wonder how we caught it."

"You saying there are no magic users here?"

"No, I'm saying that even the magic users here don't run around the wilderness with no pokegirls to protect them."

"While I know you are enjoying knowing more than me about something cut to the chase, how do we get our first pokegirl?"

"They are called starters and we simply show up at a ranch or pokecenter and present the slips we got when we completed the test."

"But we didn't complete the test."

"No but Rose did, and the slips are on the desk."

"So any ideas where to go for our first pokegirl?"

"She didn't say, I figure we collect our stuff check out, maybe someone at the desk can tell us where to go."

Gabrielle shrugged, it seemed like as good of plan as any to her.

Leo's preparation for trying to talk in a lower than normal voice was shot to hell as his eyes fell on the very pretty very young pink haired girl standing behind the receptionist's desk. It almost looked like she was wearing one of those naughty adult Halloween nurses costumes you saw in some of the adult sections of costume shops. The slightly disturbing thing was that she couldn't have been more than twelve or so if that old. His voice squeaked, "Hi."

The girl smiled, "I'm Candice I hope you enjoyed your stay at the Babbling Brook Hotel."

Gabrielle shook her head at her brother's reaction to the girl. He was normally a lot better at dealing with girls than he was currently doing, it probably had something to do with her current style of dress. She smiled brightly at the cute girl, "I was hoping you could help us, we aren't exactly sure where we are."

Candice frowned, "How aren't you sure?"

Gabrielle chuckled, "Do you have any evil teleporting sisters?"

Gabrielle gave a long drawn out sigh when Candice shook her head. "Well we do, so yeah no real idea where we are. I don't suppose you could tell me the closet place to get a starter is?"

Candice smiled and leaned close, "Don't tell my mom I told you this but you might try Mr. Wenaldo's Fantastic Magical Girl ranch."

Gabrielle smiled brightly at the girl, "Not that I would you understand but is it a secret?"

"Well we aren't really supposed to promote the newer ranches, plus well I think she's supposed to send people looking for starters back to the Killarney gym. Look I don't know if they can help you but it's worth a try."

Leo tried to lower his voice with only a little bit of success, "How safe is the road to the ranch?"

She chuckled, "It's not really a road, it's more like an overgrown trail. I hear that Wenaldo's people keep the trail clear of ferals though I don't know if I would walk down that trail without at least one combat type with me. But if you're interested I can give you directions."

Gabrielle grinned, "That would be perfect."

Leo zoned out the directions as he looked over the rest of hotel, it looked vaguely like a cross between a pokecenter from one of the pokemon games and an old world hotel. It was a rather jarring combination but at least the help was more than pleasant. He frowned and waved goodbye to Candice as Gabby grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the building.

Gabrielle rolled her eyes, "Come on."

"What's your hurry?"

"I don't want to be out in the forest at night?"

"Yeah, cause I'm going to believe that the girl that hunts in the forbidden forest is afraid of wandering around at night anywhere?"

"At least there I know what might be in it. I have no idea just how powerful the monsters are here. So yeah I might be a little nervous about traveling until I figure that part out." Her grin broke into a large smile. "Besides if that Nursejoy was any indication some of these so called pokegirls are hot."

"You're just a letch, you know that right?"

Gabrielle grinned, "Yeah, maybe so but at least I get more sex than you."

Leo shook his head, "Well you know Sylvie is fairly cute, would you share?"

Gabrielle's face twisted up in a look of disgust, "That's revolting, besides you know as well as I do that she only likes girls."

"I hope you realize I was just joking."

"Yeah, but does it scare you knowing that you are going to have to have sex with a girl that could rip your limbs off?"

"Well as I always figured that any girl that could put up with me wouldn't exactly be normal the ripping my limbs off part scares me less than the part where I might make a mistake and do something wrong."

Gabrielle grinned, "You're a boy you stick the pointy thing in the hole, I mean even you can't mess that up."

Leo shook his head, "Can we change the subject, please?"

She chuckled, "Prude. Fine, we can flip topics, it's five mile's to the ranch, if we run we should be able to get there in less than an hour."

"What about the ferals?"

"I'll use my magic to make us invisible, that should keep them confused enough to let us sneak past."

Leo sighed as he held out his hand for his sister to grab, "I'm going to feel this in the morning aren't I?"

She smiled as she grabbed his hand and started at for him a breakneck pace, though for her it was no more work than an easy jog.

She figured she was almost half way there when she heard a mental scream calling for help. It was enough of a shock to cause her to slow to a stop as she glanced around for a possible direction. One of the downsides of coming from a family of magic users rather than telepaths was that there was only a few people in the family that had any type of telepathy. It was this rather annoying fact that left Gabrielle with only a vague sense of direction and distance rather than a more accurate picture of where or who was doing the broadcasting. "Hello?"

"You can hear me, great. I'll head your direction, please, please help I have Team Death hot on my tail and an injured friend."

"On my way." Gabrielle starting running as fast as she could after receiving the mental image of where the person in trouble was. She didn't even bother looking back at Leo, "Someone needs our help."

Leo sighed as she broke into a spirit that could beat most city speed limits. "Hate it when she does that." He grumbled as he started running again in the direction his sister took off in.

Aithnea or Tabby as her sister called her was more than a little scared as she raced through the woods trying to get back to the path. Normally such a task would be relatively easy save for two things, one she was dragging a bunnygirl with her and the other was that she had spent the whole morning and most of the afternoon doing some illegal pokegirl capturing which had tired her out. She found herself wishing that she that perfected the teleport skill and that she still had enough energy to teleport with Tiffany but as she was only twelve and was already extremely tired and beat up from playing with the ferals in the area she figured that even if she knew the technique now wouldn't be the best time to test just how much energy it took. She was just hoping that whatever or whoever she had gotten a hold of with her telepathy wasn't part of Team Death. She felt a shiver go down her back as the two hounds following her let lose with a powerful howl. She had just barely made it to the path when Tiffany tripped over an exposed root and went down hard. That was apparently all the vicious hound needed to tackle her and bite her.

Tiffany screamed as the hound took a chunk out of her back.

Tabby summoned up as much mana as she could from the surrounding area, condensed it into a bolt of power and tossed it at the hound, only to watch in horror as it merely caused the bitch to grunt. Her cat ears twitched in frustration, "Fucking dark type dogs." She figured she would have to go about this another way, "Hey you dumb fucking Welsh bitch!"

The hound looked up from her spot chewing on the bunnygirl her muzzle dripping blood, "You think you can save her, I'm going to have so much fun with her. There is nothing you can do about it. By the time help arrives you'll be dead or in a pokeball."

Tabby watched as a magical bolt flew from down the trail to slam into the hound. The hound let out a rather startled yelp as the force of the blast tossed her into a tree. Tabby quickly turned to look at where the bolt come from. She wasn't sure what to make of the girl standing in the road middle of the road like some ancient gun slinger without the guns. Her long red hair was the color of blood, even at this distance her eyes seemed to sparkle with energy, her feet were spread apart in a fighting stance, her trench coat rustling gently in the wind. It wasn't the crackling energy that flowed between the girl's hands as she prepared her next spell that drew her eyes so much as the girl's face, she was stunning, one of the cutest girls Tabby had ever seen. She wasn't sure what the girl should be wearing but the jeans and tee-shirt seemed rather mundane for such a goddess.

Gabrielle watched in satisfaction as the hound fled with her tail between her legs. She wouldn't have minded chasing after the creature but it looked like the strange looking girl with bunny ears was hurt. Her mind skipped back, wait bunny ears? I guess she must be one of the pokegirls. The bunny girl was wearing the tattered remains of a once white shirt as well as jeans and boots. "Hello?" She started walking closer, "If you want I can try to help your friend." She noticed as she got closer that the cat girl was wearing a long white pirate shirt and a top hat.

Her fuzzy black cat ears twitched as she looked up at the stranger coming closer, "I don't suppose you have any healing magic?"

Gabrielle nodded, after all it was required learning for a trouble maker such as her. "I can do a little but it's not my strong suit. I'll need to pull out my wand though so don't feel alarmed."

Tabby nodded, "Go for it, hopefully if we can get her healed we can get out of here before the Team Death tamer shows up."

Gabrielle carefully reached her hand up her sleeve and pulled her wand from it's sheath.

Tiffany whimpered as Gabrielle carefully pulled the shirt back from the ghastly wound made by the hound, she wasn't expecting the feeling of crawling bugs under her skin as the flesh knitted itself back together over the worst of the wound. She relaxed slightly when the feeling left taking with it a great deal of the pain.

"Not sure that worked as well as Aunt Ginny's healing charms, but it should stop the bleeding long enough to get some better help."

Tiffany carefully got up only to wince as pain shot through her ankle, "I think it's broken."

Tabby sighed, "Well don't stand on it. We'll figure something out. We are going to get in so much trouble, at least the boss man can stick you in a healing cycle."

"You can't?" Gabrielle knew the second she saw the weird looks of confusion on the other girls' faces that she had said something stupid.

Tabby shook her head, "No, I'm only twelve and a pokekit. I don't have a pokeball."

Gabrielle nodded, "Oh."

Tiffany sat back down on the ground being careful of her ankle, "So not that I'm not grateful but what brings you out this way?"

"Well my brother and I passed our trainer's test but they didn't have any pokegirls at the center back on the road so they sent us to the Wenaldo ranch to see about getting a starter pokegirl."

Tabby's ears twitched, "Wait, you're a tamer?"

"Well we passed the test, so sort of? Though without a pokegirl it's hard to be a pokegirl trainer. Don't I look like one?"

"It's just that most tamers are guys and well you used magic against that hound, speaking of which we should get going."

Gabrielle shrugged, "Once my pokey brother shows up we can. Actually that should be him coming up the trail now."

Leo grumbled as he spotted Gabrielle sitting in the middle of the road talking to two lovely young ladies. "You have to hog all of the cute ones don't you."

Tiffany blinked, "Did he just call me cute?"

Tabby chuckled, "I think he did."

Leo blinked as Gabrielle turned her smile on him, it was never a good thing when she had that grin. It usually meant that he had to talk himself out of trouble somehow. "What?"

She pointed to Tiffany's swollen ankle, "You should be a gentleman and offer to carry the young lady with the broken ankle back to the ranch." She tossed a mental whisper to him before he could screw her plans up, 'Just use a weight reduction charm on her. And don't put pressure on her shoulder.'

Tiffany blinked, "You would do that for me? I've never had a knight in shining armor before."

Leo blushed, "Why of course, I would love to be your knight in shining armor." He did a low bow to disguise his whispered levitation charm as well as the flourish of the sleeve his wand was hidden in before reaching down and carefully picking the bunny girl up in his arms.

Tiffany smiled brightly, "And what is my knight in shinning armor called?"

Leo smiled, "My name is Leo Angel Potter and my sister is Gabrielle Tara Rosenberg. It's a pleasure to meet you both."

Tabby smiled, "I'm Aithnea or Tabby or Abby depending on who you ask. My friend over there is Tiffany."

Gabrielle blinked as she noticed Tabby's tail flipping back and forth, "Hey you have a cute tail."

Tabby blushed slightly, "Thanks."

"So what can you tell us about the Wenaldo ranch?"

"It's mostly a magic type ranch, he deals in all sorts of magic pokegirls. Things like witches and their evolutions. There are also the odd other types around from time to time. He doesn't normally do starter pokegirls but as you should know all breeders have a few low powered girls around that should be suitable for starters. I'm sure once I tell him you saved our lives he would be more than happy to help you out with something."

Gabrielle grinned, "Alright lead on, before Leo's arms fall off."

Mr. Wenaldo was growing a little concerned about his various capture teams. Most of the actual tamers he had on hand were back but Tabby and Tiffany were still missing. He would be less worried if Sarah was with them like she usually was but she had come down with a fever last night and was sleeping it off. Even without Sarah he normally wouldn't be that concerned as they had proven themselves more than able to deal with the few low powered ferals around the forest but he had just gotten a report over the com that a new team had been encountered closer to his ranch than he would like. He knew it was probably just a couple of leftovers from Team Viper but it still it was enough of a worry that he was pacing on the front porch of the ranch. He forced himself to remain calm as his heart almost stopped for a second as he saw two people he didn't know walking with Tabby, one of which was carrying Tiffany in his arms. He relaxed slightly when he noticed that Tabby seemed uninjured at least and Tiffany was moving too much to be dead. "So how was your walk?"

Tabby smiled over at Mr. Wenaldo, he was a rather slim as well as short man in his late twenties. He had a large smile outlined with a goatee, something Tabby had always thought made him look ruggedly handsome, at least as ruggedly handsome as an uncle could look without it being creepy. "It went well for the first part, but when we were heading home it turned right nasty as we had to run from a bunch of Team Death idiots with Hounds. We would have been eaten for sure if it wasn't for these nice folk."

Tiffany finally winced, "Tabby can you get my ball and put me in it please? My ankle is killing me."

Tabby waited for Mr. Wenaldo's nod before running into the large manor house.

Leo carefully set Tiffany down on the edge of the porch. He gave her a big smile, "You're a real trouper you know that right?"

Tiffany half smiled and half winced, "Thanks."

Mr. Wenaldo rubbed his goatee in consideration, "It's not often we get youngsters out here. How can I help you?"

Gabrielle smiled, "Well long story very short we turned fifteen and stopped at the first place we passed to test at the pokecenter for our trainer's license, which just so happened to be the hotel close to you, they of course didn't have any starters but they mentioned that you might have some. I have a note from the center someplace. I was hoping that we could get two starter pokegirls, that is if you have any sir."

Mr. Wenaldo frowned slightly, being that he could see through the magical illusion that clung to the two youngsters he was fairly sure that there was no way in hell the two people in front of him were thirteen let alone fifteen but they did present an opportunity to solve a number of his problems. He absently took Tiffany's pokeball from Tabby before returning Tiffany to it. He smiled at Tabby, "Why don't you run her through the healing machine, give her a nice cleaning too. You can store your excess supplies from earlier as well." He waited until she left before turning back to look at the two youngsters. "Tell me how you managed to foil a Team Death attack without a pokegirl and I might help you out."

Tabby hurried into the room where the healing machine was kept. She slipped in and shut the door making sure it was locked behind her. She quickly inserted Tiffany's ball into the machine and pressed the start button. She walked around behind the counter and pulled out her sister's box. She grinned at the large bright letters drawn in different colored crayon that spelled out Sarah's name. She carefully emptied her collection of ferals from the day's hunt into the box. What was it her sister said, ah yes illegal but not unethical. She carefully slid the box back under the shelf with the rest of the collection boxes. She walked over and emptied her empty pokeballs into a large box behind the counter before walking back over to the door and unlocking it. She smiled briefly when the machine dinged telling her that the healing process was done. She grabbed Tiffany's pokeball and headed upstairs to check on her sister.

Mr. Wenaldo was faintly surprised that everything looked in order when he brought up the youngsters records on their pokedexes. He smiled, "Well it appears that everything is in order. While I like you and would like to reward you for saving Tabby's life, most of my current girls are already spoken for. You understand that as a specialty breeder, I only have the best girls. As such I'm afraid we have a very long waiting period, plus I would be remiss to send one of my girls with a tamer she didn't like."

"So in other words you can't help us?"

Mr. Wenaldo smiled as he shook his head, "I did not say that my dear boy, I happen to have quite a good deal for you, if you're willing to do a bit of hard work I'm sure we could arrange something. You look like the sort that would take care of their girls, am I right?"

Leo thought the man's smile reminded him a little too much of the Weasley twins. "Of course, who wouldn't."

"Sadly too many people these days. If you would be willing to take Tiffany off my hands I would be delighted to introduce you to our resident Amazonlee, I'll even cut you a deal on her. I know most tamers your age wouldn't want a Bunnygirl but she isn't as ditzy as most of them so she isn't too bad a catch."

Leo scowled, he was more than a little pissed about the guy insinuating that something was wrong with the nice young lady that he had spent the walk chatting with, but he was trying to not piss the guy off. "I didn't see anything wrong with her, she was a nice young lady."

He nodded, "Yes she is, normally I wouldn't dream of trading her away but she's been depressed lately, and I think you're just what the doctor ordered."

Gabrielle frowned, "So what's wrong with the amazonlee? You don't sound like the type that would sell a girl for cheap unless there is something wrong with her."

"Normally I wouldn't but she recently went through threshold and is having a difficult time adjusting. Her family was traveling on the Kerry road when they got attacked by ferals, the trauma caused her to threshold. Her family dumped her at the pokecenter and the nursejoy sent her here. She has some abandonment issues to work through still."

Leo shrugged, "Well can I at least meet her before I decide?"

Mr. Wenaldo smiled, "I wouldn't have it any other way."

Gabrielle absently followed along as Mr. Wenaldo lead them around the back of the manor house and into what was obviously a training yard of some type. She fought the urge to snicker as she looked around at the dozens of brightly dressed girls practicing all different types of attack spells against each other as well as on targets. They came to a stop not too far from where a red haired girl was furiously slamming her fists into a large log that was suspended from ropes connected at the top of two large poles. The log looked to have seen better days. Most of the bark had been smashed and even the wood was showing signs of severe damage from where the girl had repeatedly smashed it. The girl took a few steps back from her 'punching bag' as the group stepped up. "I suppose you've come with another tamer to try to get rid of me?"

Mr. Wenaldo sighed, "I admit the last guy was an idiot but you can't go breaking humans' jaws." He held up his hand when she started to protest, "Yes I know he deserved it for not being a gentlemen but still it's going to be trouble once he gets to someplace where he can report you. Besides I'm a mage, I don't know the first thing about martial arts."

The girl shook her head, "And I suppose this boy does?"

Leo grinned, "Actually I do, I might even be able to teach you a thing or two."

She looked at Mr. Wenaldo and snickered, "I'll make you a deal, I'll go quietly if the boy is brave enough to fight me and good enough to win."

Leo shrugged, "Sure, why not. I haven't had a good fight in a while. Besides you can't be as hard as my sister. Not that I expect to win but I'm brave enough to try."

Mr. Wenaldo looked nervously at Leo, "Are you sure?"

He shrugged, "Not really, but if I don't try she isn't ever going to respect me."

Mr. Wenaldo shouted, "Clear the practice field, we have a challenger for Laura."

The various witch pokekits and pokegirls moved off the field, most of them were giggling as they found spots to watch the human get his ass kicked.

Gabrielle shook her head, "You know you're crazy right? She's got enhanced strength and speed like a slayer right?"

He nodded, "Yeah, just make sure you have some healing magic ready."

Leo wasn't sure what was wrong, ever since he had entered this world he was having trouble keeping his eyes where they belonged, which was as far as he was concerned was on the girl's face. It was sort of hard though when the girl in question was pretty and bouncing up and down on her feet like a sugar junkie, it did interesting things to her breasts.

Gabrielle winced as Leo barely managed to block the girl's opening kick. She knew there was no real way for Leo to win but she was glad he was at least trying his best.

Sarah glanced up as someone knocked on her door, "Go away, I'm working on something."

Tabby frowned, "I'm not leaving."

Sarah sighed, she wasn't really in the mood to talk to anyone let alone her sister. She still felt like shit from being sick last night. It hadn't helped that she now knew why she had been sick, though she still wasn't sure what to do about it. "Just go away." She sighed as the previously locked door swung open revealing her sister holding a pair of wires. "You know it was locked for a reason."

Tabby shrugged as she stepped into the room, "Get a better lock. You look a little bit better."

Sarah raised an eyebrow, "Seriously?"

"No, not really but hey…" She grinned at the annoyed look that passed over her sister's face. At least if she could get annoyed over her bad jokes she must be feeling better even if it looked like she had been seriously crying. She frowned it wasn't like her sister to get that upset about things. As she glanced around the room her gaze stopped on a large dent in the closet door where it looked like something had hit it. Her stomach tried to drop through the floor as she noticed her sister's pokedex laying discarded on the floor not too far from the closet. Well okay to be technical it wasn't her sisters as she wasn't old enough to have one but it had been 'hers' for as long as they had lived at her uncle's ranch. She normally took really good care of it so it being discarded on the floor wasn't a good sign. She tried to brighten her voice, "You should get out of bed and come outside, you can meet the girl that saved me from Team Death."

Sarah sighed, "I guess I feel well enough to come outside for a bit. You're going to have to tell me what you were doing anywhere near Team Death."

Gabrielle wasn't sure if she should be offended on her brother's behalf or amused at how the fight was progressing. If Laura hadn't been playing with him the fight would have been over before it really began but it looked like she was enjoying having someone that knew what they were doing to spar with. Her attention was pulled from the fight as she noticed Tabby, Tiffany and a slightly taller girl with them that looked a bit like Tabby minus the cat ears and swishing tail. Even looking sort of sick with an old grey blanket wrapped around her shoulders she still looked pretty. She thought the girl's long red hair looked very nice in a braid. "Hey."

Tiffany smiled as she walked over to stand next to Gabrielle, "He's doing pretty well for a human."

Gabrielle shrugged nonchalantly before raising her voice to make sure the crowd could hear her, "Yeah, though she is just playing with him, I suspect the crowd is going to start calling for her to finish it rather soon."

Sarah winced as she heard the crowd take the girl's suggestion and start shouting things like 'Mana Bolt and finish it.'

Leo was sweating heavily, he was wishing he could figure out a way to lose gracefully, he had just about decided to just fall down from exhaustion when his opponent raised her hands in front of her and started charging some type of magical attack. He frantically dove to the ground and rolled. He barely managed to dodge the bolt of pure magic as it came shooting at him. "Hey that's not fair, I thought this was a physical fight."

Laura grinned, "You said fight you didn't say what type."

Gabrielle winced, "She shouldn't have said that."

Leo blinked, "Well in that case." He quickly tossed himself into a roll to buy himself some much needed time as he pulled his wand from his sleeve. He almost landed flat on his face as he felt his already abused shoulder dislocate. He grunted as he forced himself to ignore the pain as he pushed the last of his energy into his spell. He pulled him self off the ground and into a crouch before pointing his wand at the girl and screaming "Stupefy." He was relieved as a large red bolt jumped from the tip of his wand and hit the girl, he was especially glad when the girl fell over unconscious a second before he fell to his knees. He hadn't exactly been sure the spell would work but hoped that it would do something if he put enough power into it. He barely heard Mr. Wenaldo say the match was over before darkness claimed him.

Gabrielle chuckled as her brother fell asleep. "Well he won, she would have been better sticking with martial arts. His honor wouldn't have allowed him to use his magic."

Mr. Wenaldo chuckled, "I'm surprised he did so well to start with."

Gabrielle shrugged, "He is used to fighting people way stronger and faster than he is. Even still he would have gotten crushed if she hadn't been playing with him."

Mr. Wenaldo nodded before pulling out a pokeball and activating it.

Gabrielle watched as a flash of red light absorbed the girl.

"Normally I would have let him do that but as he is unconscious, I'll trust you to give him the pokeball when he wakes up." He carefully handed Gabrielle the pokeball.

"Thanks, so what am I supposed to do about a starter?"

Mr. Wenaldo handed Gabrielle the pokeball. "I have some thoughts on that."

Sarah sighed, she knew that she was going to have to get a tamer eventually now that she was a pokegirl but that didn't mean she was happy about it. Unlike a number of girls that suddenly went through threshold she had known that at some point she would. According to her blood work, which she had never actually seen, her father had kept it in a safe, she had too many blood gifts not to turn into a pokegirl. He had smiled when he told her that she would always be his princess even after she changed. She remembered as a little girl asking him what the chances of her not changing were, she still remembered how he had grinned and said about five percent. She had sort of given up on being normal after that. She hadn't had the nerve at the time to ask her father if there was more to her bloodgifts than regenerating small cuts. She had been too afraid to find out that she was a lab rat. She didn't like to think about her father like that. "I don't suppose you want a barely trained pokegirl that doesn't even know any attacks?"

Gabrielle blinked, "You're a pokegirl?"

Sarah sighed, "Yeah, we found out today. Apparently my fever… yeah, I'm not sure I'll be much use but I'm willing to try."

Gabrielle looked around at the shocked faces, "I'm going to assume by the shocked faces on every one but your sister and Mr. Wenaldo no one else knew, so why out yourself?"

Sarah looked up at her uncle before looking back at Gabrielle, "My sister told me that you helped her, you're cute and according to her nice. Pokegirls don't have a lot of options on who we end up with. Even my uncle can only do so much to make sure the girls here are well placed, I'm trying to hedge my bets. Besides I want to see the world and you look like a girl with the skills to do it." She turned to look at her uncle, "You don't mind if I go with her do you?"

Mr. Wenaldo rolled his eyes, "If that's what you want, I'll sort out the paperwork. Just remember to come visit now and then. Oh Tiffany do you have any problems being the young man's pokegirl?"

Tiffany blinked then screeched, "I get to keep him? Weeee! I'll go pack." She ran back into the house as fast as she could.

Mr. Wenaldo sighed, "I hope you'll forgive her, she is a little odd."

Gabrielle frowned, "How so?"

"Well compared to most bunnygirls she's a genius, heck compared to most people she is fairly smart, which is odd as hell in a bunnygirl. I'm fairly sure she has some magical ability. If the scanner didn't keep saying she was a bunnygirl I would think she was something else, mostly because she has human feet and no fur on her body. Only really odd thing to watch out for is she has no sense of direction. If you give her a detailed set of directions with left right lefts she's fine. She can even find her way around towns she has been in just fine, but if you tell her to go to the west side of town, she will nod and wander off but have no idea where she is supposed to go. Just don't use compass directions and you should be fine."

Sarah chuckled, "I should go and pack, that is if my stuff is still my stuff."

Mr. Wenaldo chuckled, "And have Grandma come and roast my ass because I was being an idiot? I think not. Go get your stuff."

Sarah grinned as reached over and gave her uncle a kiss on the cheek. "You're the best."

Gabrielle watched her run off, "So what type of pokegirl is she?"

Mr. Wenaldo pointed to the pokedex at Gabrielle's belt, "You could have just scanned her."

"That would be sort of rude wouldn't it?"

Mr. Wenaldo chuckled as he walked back toward the manor house to forge some paperwork, "You'll do lass, you'll do."

Tabby nodded, "I sneaked a peek at the pokedex when we were walking down the stairs. She's a Clowmystic, you do know that a lot of people are going to want to take her from you right?"

"What? Why? I know she is extremely cute… but that means people are going to want to take her from me? What exactly is a Clowmystic?"

"Can I see your pokedex?"

Gabrielle shrugged and handed her pokedex over, "Sure, knock yourself out."

Tabby hit a few keys before bringing up the entry for Clowmystics and showing it to Gabrielle, "So basically they are card using magic girls. They are very rare and valuable, so a lot of people are going to want to challenge you for salvage rights for them. So I suggest having her practice with her new magic on ferals as much as possible before we hit any major towns so that she can get more powerful. I'll probably have to tag along just to keep her out of trouble. That is if you don't mind?"

Gabrielle shrugged, "The more the merrier."

Leo groaned as he woke up, "I feel like someone ran me through a juicer, though not half as bad as I expected."

Gabrielle chuckled, "Hey you're the idiot that decided to play punching bag for a pokegirl. I mean I tried to warn you."

He sighed as he pulled himself to his feet and looked around the dimly lit room he found himself in. The only light came from a crack in the shutters on the window. "Not very hard, next time it's your turn."

Gabrielle shrugged, "I guess."

"How long was I out for?"

"You slept all night, don't worry I healed the major wounds before we moved you."

"So I'm guessing we are going to start out pretty soon?"

"Yeah fairly soon. We were just waiting on you actually."

"Is it okay to be scared?"

"Sure but just don't tell anyone you are." She flashed him a smile.

"So did you get a starter yet?"

"Yeah, nice girl named Sarah."

"So is she good in bed?"

"Wouldn't know, we didn't get that far. She's Tabby's sister and a new Clowmystic, you might have seen her before you got knocked out."

"Was that the one with the blanket around her shoulders?"

"Yeah apparently she thresholded last night, so she didn't have any of her special materials yet. I figured trying to make them was a better use of our time our first night together than taming."

"You really are weird aren't you?"

"Yeah but you already knew that."

"So how did it go?"

"We had a nice chat while I tried to figure out how to form and enchant some amethyst into cards that could be shuffled and wouldn't break short of an act of the gods. After that feat of skill, I gave her one of the cards blanks. She went into a trance like state and drew this neat kneeling naked girl holding with a vine covered staff on it. Apparently it's a heal card. She tested it out on you a few times before she got tired. Which probably explains why you aren't completely black and blue all over."

"Should I be worried that you let her test an untested unknown magical item on me while I slept?"

"Probably, for all we knew it could have been a poison card." She chuckled at his look of annoyance. "Don't worry we were fairly sure it was a heal card."

Leo sighed, "Alright so she got her first card. Only you would want to make cards out of semiprecious gemstones that had to be melted and formed with magic. You have enough stock cards to last for a while?"

"Unless I'm wildly underestimating how long before she can make more I think we have enough for a while. I can always gather more material at a shop, speaking of which Rose sent us some credits."

Leo blinked, "Do I want to know where she got the credits?"

"Not really but I'll tell you anyways. Her e-note said she used some cursed water to turn the captured Death Eaters into pokegirls, ran them through a level five taming cycle and then sold them all."

Leo twitched, "Remind me not to piss her off."

"Yeah seriously."

"Did she say what she did with Draco?"

"She cut him lose, probably safer for him here than trying to hide in the otherworld after selling out Voldemort."

"I'm just glad she's family…"

"You and me both."

He shook his head, "So how much was our share?"

"We each got one hundred thousand credits, add that to the ten thousand she put in our accounts earlier and well you do the math. It seems like a lot until you look at the price for things. Basically we are going to have to start capturing ferals and selling them if we want to be able to afford a steady supply of stat ups and durability drugs for the girls. That's assuming we stick which just our three pokegirls."

Leo sighed, "In other words our vacation is turning into a lot of work."

"Blah, don't be a spoilsport. "So if we pool our resources how many empty pokeballs do we have?"

Leo closes his eyes and thinks back to when he was loading the gear, "I think like twenty five or so."

"At least I had a chance to start reading Taming for Dummies last night after Sarah crashed. It has a good point about having sex with the girls to form initial bonds before working on group stuff. Besides wild kinky sex never hurt anyone."

"That's not what Xander says."

"His girl is a demon or ex-demon depending on the year, that doesn't count."

Leo sighed, "So how far away do you want to get from the ranch before we set up camp?"

"At least two miles."

"Works for me."

Tabby grinned, "Are we there yet?"

Gabrielle sighed, "For the second to last time no."

"What happens on the last time?"

"I duct tape your mouth shut and dip you in chocolate sauce and eat you. Hence the last time."

Tabby frowned, "Are you always this cranky?"

Leo shook his head and handed Gabrielle an apple, "She isn't really cranky, she's just hungry."

"I'm also annoyed that we haven't seen any ferals."

Tiffany nodded, "Well we're a large group, plus this area is rather hunted out."

Gabrielle smiled brightly as she took off into the woods away from the path. "Finally, Camp."

Laura spoke quietly as she walked back toward the group from her forward scout position. "Need any help setting up the tent?"

Gabrielle grinned as she pulled the tent from her backpack, "Sure just help me spread the corners out."

With Laura's help it only took a few minutes to flatten out the corners and stake the edges down. "What's next?"

Gabrielle snapped her fingers together, "Magic."

Laura was rather surprised when the tent inflated as Gabrielle snapped her fingers together. "How?"

"It's magic, plus it's bigger on the inside than the outside. Best part of it is that if I set up the wards right we should be safe from ferals while we sleep."

Sarah looked suspiciously at Gabrielle, "I wasn't aware anyone sold tents like this around here."

She smiled, "Not sure they do. So there are three bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room and a bathroom."

Leo shrugged, "Doesn't matter to me, Tabby can use the smallest bedroom I'll take which ever one you don't want Gabby."

Gabrielle nodded before leading the way into the tent.

Tabby clapped excitedly as the word "Kitten" appeared over one of the bedroom doors. "Exploring time." She giggled as she darted off to explore her bedroom.

Laura chuckled, "You know I still think you cheated in the fight Leo."

He shrugged and smiled, "You did as well. How about I make it up to you?"

"And how exactly would you make it up to me?

Leo leaned over and whispered something in Tiffany's ear.

She nodded, "I'll start lunch but you two have to promise to have a good time."

Leo grinned, "I was thinking a nice long massage followed be other fun things."

Laura grinned, "I think I would like that."

Gabrielle pointed at one of the two empty rooms, "Leo" appeared over the door in sparkly letters. She chuckled at the two, "Get a room you two."

Sarah watched them hurry off with amusement before turning to look at Tiffany, "You okay with her going first?"

She grinned, "He promised me a large bag of carrots to make it up to me."

Sarah chuckled, "Oh boy."

Gabrielle frowned, "Something wrong with her having carrots?"

"No she just likes to use them for pleasure sticks then eat them."

Tiffany shrugged not in the least embarrassed, "They taste better that way. By the way is there a dress code in here? These pants are bunching my tail."

Gabrielle shrugged, "I'm not going to complain if you take them off."

Sarah shook her head, "Don't look at me, you know I don't care."

Tiffany happily removed her pants and tossed them on the couch. She twirled around to show off her bushy rabbit tail and silk underwear. "Much better, do we have lunch materials?"

Gabrielle started pulling a few supplies out of her bag, "I can conjure the rest if we are missing something vitally important or transmute something if I need too."

Tiffany frowned, "Which is easier?"

"Depends on where I have to conjure something from." Gabrielle noticed how excitedly Tiffany was twirling around some of the kitchen knives. She backed up a few steps, "I'll just leave you to your cooking while Sarah and I check out our bedroom."

Tiffany grinned, "Have lots of kinky monkey sex."

Gabrielle groaned, "I never thought I would meet someone as bad as Anya."

Sarah smiled as she followed Gabrielle into her room, "Well she did have a good suggestion."

"So how do you want to do this?"

"How about on the bed the first time? After that we can get more creative?"

Gabrielle grinned as she started undressing Sarah, "You really are cute."

"I'm going to look the same for a long time, you realize that right?"

"It just makes it that much more naughty."

Sarah smiled as she slipped out of her dress before returning the favor with Gabrielle's clothes. She grinned for a few seconds as she inspected a naked Gabrielle before pouncing her.

"Meep!"

Tabby smiled as she relaxed on the couch and worked on eating the sandwich and carrot sticks Tiffany had given her. She smiled as she heard the faint shouts of Clowmystic competing with Amazonlee in the background. "It just wouldn't be as much fun if the walls had soundproofing."

Tiffany giggled, "You're a bad little girl, you know that right?"

"You think Gabby would spank me?"

"Maybe later after they learn how bad you are."

She smiled as she popped another carrot stick into her mouth, "Here's hoping."


	22. Bounty Hunting

Gabrielle glanced over the rest of the beings relaxing in the living room of the tent. Alright now that the fun part of the day is over we should get down to business, the rules. None of us have been a part of a harem before, so this will be new to all of us. The rules are simple, anyone want to guess what rule number one is?

Laura raised her hand, Obey your tamer?

Nope, not even in the top three. Anyone else?

Leo smiled in amusement when none of the girls raised their hands, I m going to go out on a limb and go with the old Scooby gang standby, don t die?

Ding, ding we have a winner. Most important rule is don t die. I don t have that many friends and I hate losing them, plus it s a bitch bringing people back from the dead, so don t do it. Can we all agree that that is a good rule? She smiled as everyone nodded their heads. Good, rule number two, respect yourselves and your sisters. You are all interesting people with something to offer this partnership. You might have a genetic need for sex but you still have the right to say no thanks to any of us. I m going to be clear no means no. Both I and Leo will respect that, and I expect the rest of you to as well. Is that understood? She watched each person nod, Good, because I m not going to be happy if that rule gets broken. Rule three public verses private. Anyone want to guess what that means?

Tabby raised her tail up in the air like a hand. She was enjoying watching the group from her spot on the back of the couch but if they weren t going to answer than she was, I m guessing it means that we don t talk about private things in public.

Gabrielle smiled, Exactly. For example, Sarah knows a lot more about running a breeder s farm than I do, maybe more than I ever will. While I wouldn t mind learning at some point, she is the expert. In public she can do little more than offer reminders or such things, in private I expect her to help out with selling any ferals we catch, not to mention figuring out who we can get the best price from for whichever type we are going to be selling. Basically I m saying that in private I m going to respect people s knowledge and experience but in public you are going to have to respect my choices because that is how the leagues work.

Laura frowned, Does that mean that Leo has to respect your choices too?

Leo rolled his eyes, Nah but I m going to, because she is normally right. I ll be honest, I don t really care about the leagues. I don t even care how many ferals we bag, other than they are a damn good source of credits. Mostly I m doing this as a chance to practice and increase my fighting ability, my magic powers and because my sister asked me to.

Tiffany looked over at Gabrielle, So if you two don t want to bag ferals why did you become a tamer?

Gabrielle smirked, That brings up rule number four, don t ask questions you don t want answered.

Tiffany glanced at Leo, She isn t going to answer my question is she?

Leo grinned, Probably not right now, she might later though. Any other questions?

Any other big rules?

Not really.

Laura turned and nodded to Tabby who was still sprawled on the back of the couch with her top hat perched precariously on her head, What about her?

Gabrielle frowned, What do you mean what about her?

I know she is too young to be pokeballed and to fight in league duels but I ve heard she is decent in a fight.

Gabrielle turned to look at Tabby, Do you want to be part of the fighting force? Or do you want to just travel with us?

Tabby glanced at Sarah, I can hold my own, I m not going to be a burden.

Gabrielle waited for Sarah s nod, Than as far as I m concerned she trains with us and fights ferals with us.

Laura frowned, But that s illegal.

Gabrielle shrugged, Your point being? Frankly I don t really care much what a bunch of political idiots think is moral, ethical or legal as long as they don t know I m doing it. That being said if you re in you re in, if you re not you re not, we fight as a group where and when we can, and when we can t we stack the deck as best we can. If you want to walk away now you can, no hard feelings. She spent a few seconds looking each of the girls in the eye, but if you want to stay I can guarantee that by the time we get through training you, even a legendary will blink after you hit them.

Leo chuckled, I highly suggest using that tiny small amount of time they are blinking to teleport away and hide. He smiled when all of the girls laughed at his joke.

Gabrielle sighed, Look, I can t force you to join. I can t tell you it s going to be easy, it s not. But I can tell you that I m offering you my support. I ll run you through however many healing cycles you need in order to train as hard as you can. I ll feed you energy drink after energy drink until you re pissing like a horse every thirty minutes if that s what it takes to keep up with training. I ll risk my life countless times catching ferals with you to increase your power if you work with me. I have a plan and I have a dream. I am not going to waste my time if you don t want to be the best, so are you in? Or are you out. She pointed to Sarah, What say you?

If I do my best, will you love me? Will you never trade me? Will you treat my ideas like they matter? At Gabrielle s nod, Than I ll do my best.

That s all I can ask for. She glanced over at Tabby, What about you?

You re the first person I ve met that didn t think I was up to no good. Hell you didn t even seem to notice that I have the shady person blood curse. Nor did you make fun of the fact that I don t have a shadow. You didn t even call me a demon like some of the witches did. So if you love me and pet me and hug me I m yours, I ll do my best to become the most powerful cat in the world.

Welcome aboard.

Laura shrugged, I go with Leo, enough said.

Tiffany looked around the group with a smile, If I promise to train as hard as I can do I get a life time supply of carrots?

Leo chuckled, I ll do what I can.

Tiffany grinned, In that case I m in.

Laura looked over at Sarah, How come the bunnygirl was smart enough to ask for wages when we weren t?

Sarah chuckled, You ll get used to it. Now that we re all in what are your great plans?

Gabrielle grinned, I guess we can share. She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a small box before opening it. She showed the box around to the crowd.

Only Laura looked confused as to the what the contents of the box were. What are those?

These are training machines, according to the notes that came with them, they each teach a different technique.

I ve heard rumors of them but never thought to actually see any of them.

Leo grinned at the rest of the girls, Seen them before?

Sarah nodded, Yeah, father had a few of them for his projects.

Tabby sighed, Sadly the ones he had only taught things I couldn t learn. So what do those two teach?

Gabrielle rolled her eyes, Flower kick, not something I would normally have bought but useful none the less for adding a plant elemental attack to your list of skills.

Tabby grinned, And the other?

Gabrielle grinned, I m glad you asked, it s probably one of the most useful techniques out there. It s more impressive than a fireball way more useful even than a lightening bolt. She grinned at the various disgusted looks the girls were tossing her way. Alright it s called Leaf Blade mark two. Yeah, the mark two part is rather stupid. It creates leaves and pollen that swirl around a blade and prevent the blade from doing lethal damage. Probably not the creator s intent but it s perfect for us. Can anyone guess why it s perfect?

Tiffany sighed, It s so we can beat each other nearly to death in training for combat experience without worrying about killing each other isn t it?

Leo grinned reached over and rubbed one of Tiffany s ears for a few seconds. Exactly.

Laura grinned, This is going to be fun.

Sarah frowned, So what are the rest of us going to be doing when they are practicing the sword?

Gabrielle s grin got wider, What makes you think you re getting out of sword practice?

But I m a magic type.

Ah maybe a practical demonstration is in order. She got up out of her chair and walked toward the kitchen, Do you mind if I steal one of your carrots Tiff? She waited for Tiffany s nod before snagging one of the carrots. I m supposed to be squishy right? She waited for a few nods before tossing the carrot into the air, drawing her sword and cutting the carrot in half. The two halves of the carrot clattered to the ground in the suddenly silent tent, I might be squishy but that carrot is still very dead. That s why humans use tools. Way back when humanity was young they used clubs to bash animals or girls and drag them back to their caves. They got better tools as they grew.

Leo shook his head, Long story short, you re still human, you can still use tools if you want. Just because you can toss magical cards around is no reason not to work on weapon work when the rest of us do. Just think of it as an alternative for when you have used up your card magic for the day or if your enemy has powerful magical shields. Having more options despite what some people think is never a bad thing. Not to be mean but last I checked you have one card and it s not an offensive one. Granted it s one that is going to be a great help but it s not terribly useful if you want to actually damage a feral.

Sarah nodded, Okay. Gabrielle sheathed her sword before picking up the carrots and walking over to the sink to wash them off. Any other stupid but it s always been done this way arguments we should get out of the way now while we re at it?

Leo laughed as he looked around at the quiet girls, I ll take that for a no. Anyways in our bag of tricks we have several other rare things that should help. We have two doses of meds that permanently increase the number of times a pokegirl can use one of her special abilities. While we will certainly try to get more as soon as we can, the stuff is rare and we probably aren t going to get more until we hit a major city.

Gabrielle walked back into the living room and handed one of the carrot halves to Tiffany. We also have some Tab that is supposed to increase Endurance and Magical ability as well as make the ability slightly easier to increase with training. We would like your input as to how best to use these precious resources.

Sarah blinked in surprise, You re going to let us decide?

Leo shrugged, We are certainly going to take your suggestions under consideration. Now I think while you work on that, we will fix lunch for you.

Tabby watched her two humans head to the kitchen, it was likely that they could still hear anything above a whisper but it was a nice gesture anyways. If I might, I have a few thoughts about what to do with the various upgrade items they are offering.

Laura shrugged, Go for it.

Well I know unless Tiffany has been holding out on me that she doesn t have any fantastic techniques that she plans on using forever, right?

Tiffany nodded, Can t say I do.

Tabby looked at Laura, I ve never seen you pull any special powers out either, so I m suggesting we let the girl that can heal us with a card have one of them.

Tiffany nodded enthusiastically, I like that idea, what about the other?

Sarah frowned, How much do you think we are going to be battling ferals verses normal league fights?

Laura looked at Sarah, What s that have to do with things?

Well the only other one here that has some rather impressive abilities is Tabby. She s got illusion magic.

Laura frowned, How do you have that?

Tabby grinned, I m a magical cat girl.

In other words if we think we are going to be fighting more ferals, I suggest giving the power-up to my sister if not then I don t know maybe save it?

Tiffany twitched her ears to cause them to flop, I suggest increasing Tabby s illusion. Never know just how useful that might be. Hopefully once we get some better techniques we will be able to get more of that stuff.

Laura nodded, Sounds fine and the Tab?

Tabby looked at Sarah, I would suggest Laura as she isn t afraid of combat.

Tiffany sighed, It s not my fault I don t like violence, it s much like you two and bugs.

Sarah and Tabby both shivered.

Well we can keep a list of who got what. Being that Sarah is the caster type we should probably go with her getting the magic tab to start with. If it really does increase the rate at which we increase our magical abilities then we should at some point, if we can swing it, have everyone get at least one dose. I just wish I was a little more useful.

Laura patted Tiffany on the head, Don t worry you had some great suggestions.

Thanks.

Gabrielle smiled at the bunch as she brought slices of conjured pizza around, I brought pizza for everyone, well other than salad girl.

Tiffany grinned as Leo brought her a large bowl of salad, Perfect.

Leo smiled as he watched her use her hands to munch of her salad, So did you decide on who gets what?

Sarah nodded, I m assuming you heard?

Yeah, pretty small space. But I like the reasoning.

Sarah nodded, Thanks.

If you don t mind Gaby I ll use the T2s on my girls first and you can take yours out feral hunting. Then we can switch in a few hours. Then in the morning after a nice long night s sleep we can start work on weapons training. He grinned as he looked at Laura s expression, Don t worry after you finish with the T2 s we are going to need to train with your new techniques. He chuckled as her face lit up in a grin.

Gabrielle nodded, Sounds fine to me.

Tabby was too busy trying to scrape the top of her mouth off with her tongue to pay much attention as they walked away from camp, You didn t say it tasted that bad.

Gabrielle grinned, You didn t ask.

Sarah rubbed her tongue over her teeth in distaste, Remind me not to take both the durability and ability enhancer ones at the same time again. I think it makes the taste worse.

It probably does. Do you have any thoughts on where to go for ferals?

Typically we just wander around until we see something.

Tabby frowned, How come you didn t give any of the durability stuff to Laura or Tiffany?

I only had enough for two doses and as Tiffany isn t much of a combat girl and Laura is a fighting type I figured I would take care of my girls first.

Tabby momentarily forgot about the after taste of the meds as she did a happy dance because her human liked her better. She likes us better.

Gabrielle chuckled as she reached out and patted Tabby on the head, Yeah but don t tell anyone. We should probably be quiet though as we are hunting.

Sarah came to a stop beneath an ash tree. I should probably make my staff if I m going to be hunting ferals.

Gabrielle handed her the knife at her belt. Have at it.

A short while later Gabrielle was left wondering if the knowledge of making a staff was somehow a genetic memory for Clowmystics or if it was pulled from the cosmic awareness but regardless it wasn t very long at all before Sarah was happily twirling her new staff around while they searched for ferals.

Gabrielle was busy watching the various clearings for signs of ferals when a low grunting sound caused her to look over toward one dimly lit area in the forest. She frowned as she spotted a leather wearing slutty looking girl that was wearing an outfit that not even aunt Faith would be caught dead in. For some reason she was kneeling down facing the old guy next to her. She wanted to hurl her lunch when she realized that girl was in the middle of performing oral sex on the guy. Gross!

Apparently the girl either wasn t that good or they had almost been done anyways because her exclamation of gross had caused the guy to look up. Ah more unlucky travelers, surrender in the name of Team Death and I ll let you live.

Gabrielle quickly drew her wand when she noticed his hand reaching for another pokeball at his belt, pointed it at the guy and screamed Stupefy! She watched in amusement as the girl quickly jumped out of the way of the red bolt of energy leaving her tamer to fall over unconscious. You re up Sarah. She grabbed her pokedex and pointed it at the fashion challenged pokegirl. She quickly read through the relevant information, Domina, the Aggressive Pokegirl, Element type plant and poison.

Sarah nodded, I ve got this. She was a little nervous as this was her first fight where she was a pokegirl rather than leading them. Still she figured she would work something out. She started running at the other girl trying to close the distance so she could hit her with her staff.

The domina girl almost snarled as she turned and glared at the girl with a staff. She summoned up her dominate power and unleashed it. She wasn t sure why the other girl wasn t even slowing down. It was like she hadn t even felt it. No matter, rose whip attack. She summoned her rose whip and slashed it at the girl charging her.

Gabrielle grinned, Dodge and bonk the bitch.

Tabby chuckled as she cheered her sister, Go Sarah go.

Sarah sidestepped the rose whip and brought her staff up in a sweeping motion to slam into the other girl s ribs.

Tabby shouted, Hit her again.

The girl wobbled on her feet slightly, Call me Queen bitch.

Sarah with a surge of energy slammed her staff into the girl s temple even as she screamed, No!

Gabrielle walked over to the now unconscious girl. Hey your first battle didn t go that badly. She flicked her wand and used it to levitate the guy s boxers back into place, then used magic to strip him of the rest of his clothes. Let s see, if I were a skanky bitch s pokeball where would I be?

Tabby pointed to the ground where a vanity ball was sitting in the dirt, It s probably that one.

Gabrielle sighed, Probably, how stupid can these guys be?

Sarah shrugged as she walked over, picked up the ball and returned the Domina to it. I m not sure. He was probably just taking a break from trolling the road for victims or maybe he was catching ferals. Even team members need the extra income now and then. We should probably turn him over to the authorities.

Gabrielle nodded, I m just hoping the nasty old bastard has some good loot. She was busy searching through the guy s bag when his com blipped, she frowned as she picked it up and a voice come over the speakers, Marvin where the fuck are you?

She put a finger to her lips for Sarah and Tabby to be quiet, I m sorry he doesn t want to talk to you any more chicken butt. But you can probably find him later in a deep dark cell some place.

I m going to cut you bitch, by the time I m done with you you ll be bleeding from the inside out.

Gabrielle flipped the off switch, Not a very nice group are they?

Tabby shook her head, Not really no.

Do those communicators have anything that would allow the guy to find it?

Sarah looked thoughtfully at the communicator, It s possible but without turning it back on, I wouldn t know for sure. You re thinking of laying an ambush aren t you?

Gabrielle grinned, Might as well make a clean sweep.

Joe Grump was more than a little pissed by the time his Hound had managed to track Marvin down. The fact that the guy was laying face up in nothing but his boxer shorts in the middle of a clearing was not making him any happier. The fact that his hound Bitch was sniffing around the guy s crotch made him even less happy. He frowned as he pulled a pokeball, Bitch Two I choose you. He sneered as a goth in pompoms appeared. Make yourself useful and guard Bitch s back.

She fucking stinks, give her a bath.

Don t make me get out the cattle prod slut.

The crazy pompom girl sneered as she looked around the area. She had quickly finished her search of the immediate area before deciding to range further. She honestly wasn t expecting to be attacked so it was a bit of a surprise when as soon as she got out of sight of the camp a large rocky arm grabbed her around the ankle. She had a brief second to scream as she felt herself being swung through the air before she felt her head slam into a tree and everything went black.

The hound wasn t having much luck sorting through the various scents that covered the clearing. She was just about to tell her master that she recognized one of the scents when she spotted a large rock type pokegirl running toward her from the edge of the clearing. She was a bit shocked to see the cat girl from the other day, standing by the edge of the clearing and cheering the creature on. But she didn t have much time to worry about that as the thing came barreling toward her. She wasn t sure what the hell type of pokegirl the creature coming at her was but it was large and mean looking. She dodged out of the way as it s massive fist missed her head by a few centimeters. She tried to bite it but it was unbelievably fast as it dodged out of the way. She growled as it flipped her off and danced out of her range time and time again. The stupid cat girl was even shaking her behind at her when not cheering for the monster. She ignored the shouts of her tamer as she focused on the rock girl before her.

Tabby watched with amusement as the hound went berserk playing with her illusion. She just hoped that she could keep the girl focused on her toy long enough for Sarah or Gabrielle to take out the girl s Tamer. She smiled as she watched the tamer fall down as Sarah bashed him in the back of the head with her staff. She blinked as she lost the illusion and the hound turned to glare directly at her, Opps, bad puppy. She was very relieved when a second later a red capture beam shot out and snared the hound as she started her leap. Thanks.

Sarah smiled, I m just glad the guy wasn t that smart. A smart villain watches their environment. She tossed the pokeball back onto the ground.

Gabrielle grinned, So noted. Let s tie this group up while we riffle through their stuff. She turned and looked at Sarah, Any idea how to figure out how many pokegirls they have or if the extra pokeballs they have are stolen?

You really are new at this aren t you? Just run your dex over the pokeballs, that will tell you what s in them.

Gabrielle pulled her dex from her belt and started going through the pokeballs, Sure just give me a minute. Tabby see if you can sort through the rest of this guys stuff for anything useful.

Tabby ran back to the bushes pulled Marvin s gear from it s hiding spot then ran over to Gabrielle and the pile of new stuff. She carefully started going through all of the bags hanging off the pokepack. So what are we going to do with dumb and stupid?

I don t know. We could always use them for feral bait.

Sarah snickered, We could but we could just as easily turn them over to the officer Jenny that works at the pokecenter. There might even be some type of reward.

Gabrielle nodded, Works for me.

Tabby blinked as she carefully tossed the guys dirty laundry out of the bag. You re buying me gloves next time we stop at a store. She carefully went back to sorting.

Sarah frowned, So what was the score?

Gabrielle grinned, Well two hounds, an Ermine which is weasel pokegirl, so not keeping her, the pompom bitch otherwise known as a fearleader. There was also a flittit on the guys belt. So all in all not to bad he also has three Furrites so the pre evolved form of Mongoosed.

Sarah shrugged, In other words nothing that would really help us.

Gabrielle shook her head, Not in the slightest. I figure I ll head back to the pokecenter run the hounds through a level five then sell them to the ranch. I don t really want anything to do with them.

Sarah grinned, They aren t very common, not really rare but not very common either. So we should get a nice price for them. Probably not as much as if we sold each one on the open market but doing that would take too long. Besides typically you only do that when you have something special to sell or are looking for something special.

Tabby nodded, Besides just about anyone we sell them two has got to be better than those two idiots. On the upside between the two of them they had about fifteen thousand credits in credit chips.

Gabrielle grinned, That s not too bad really, there is probably more hidden but really I don t care. Just give me a second to get in touch with Leo. She pulled her radio from her belt and flipped the on switch, You there? She was almost going to give up until after a few seconds, Yeah, sorry had trouble getting to the radio. A certain nameless bunny rabbit was too busy cuddling. What s up?

We ran into a bit of a snag, upside is we got the guys that sent that hound the other day, downside is we have to drag them to the pokecenter so we can drop them off. So don t expect us until a bit after dark.

Alright, we will find ways to amuse ourselves.

Gabrielle clicked the radio off. Alright let s make some type of litter so we can drag the idiots to the center. It s going to be a long tiring day.


	23. Nighttime Pain

Gabrielle frowned at the squirming man she had tied to a tree, You re a very bad man Joe, you know that right? She waited a second for a response she knew wasn t coming because of the dirty pair of the guy s underwear she had rammed into his mouth followed by a strip of duct tape to hold them in. I thought really hard about just turning you over to the police but then I changed my mind. See I have a little bit of a problem with you, you wanted to rape me until I bled. I have to admit, that disturbs me more than a little. So what we are going to do is get your friend Marvin s Domina out and we are going to have her teach my cat girl Dominate. And guess what? You get to be the practice dummy. After that I think I m going to practice a spell that I ve wanted to test out for years but never found a person worthy of it. One of the worst spells I can think of, it erases memory you see. I ve always wondered if you could delete words from people s vocabulary or maybe whole skill sets, but see you ve made me a happy witch because I really don t care if you live or die or end up worse than a bunny girl. It gives me a chance to get in some practice.

Gabrielle waved Tabby over from where she was taking inventory. I ll leave you in charge of the Domina. She pulled the sparkly vanity pokeball from her belt holster and held it out for Tabby to grab, Here.

Tabby nodded before running over and taking the Domina from Gabrielle s outstretched hand, Sure thing boss lady. She flicked the release button.

The Domina looked around as she appeared in a beam of red light, What? What s going on.

Tabby smiled grimly at the Domina, Hi, you were lost to salvage, you ve got two choices as I see it. You can either be sent to the pokecenter and given a level five conditioning cycle and basically die or you can teach me dominate and we sell you to a better tamer than Marvin. As an added bonus after you finish teaching me you get to play with Joe here before we erase his memories and sell him for pokechow. Joe twitched in his bonds frantically cursing in his head as he realized that the ropes were too tight to escape.

The Domina frowned as she reviewed her options, on the one hand she could try to escape but as the cat had her pokeball, escape wasn t exactly the best option especially against someone that was willing to grind a human into pokechow. Normally she wouldn t believe anyone would seriously consider that but there was just something wrong with the cat, a certain darkness of the soul that made her believe she was serious. She sort of sent chills down her spine, and not the good kind. Besides if she was honest with herself she wouldn t mind torturing Joe as the guy had done some rather disgusting things to her when Marvin had lent her to him. I ll help you learn if you promise to sell me rather than wipe my mind.

Tabby nodded, That works for me. How do you want to start?

Gabrielle ignored the rest of their conversation as she turned and went back to where Sarah was still busy sorting the gear. Anything useful?

Sarah pointed to the two medium elemental pistols resting on the ground in front of her. Other than these and some basic potions not really.

Gabrielle frowned, Pistols, how are they helpful?

These elemental pistols fire medium elemental rounds, for example you could shoot a lightening or fire round or other type of elemental round. They re more useful against pokegirls than the traditional firearms that people used in the old days. Still not as effective as another pokegirl but probably better than nothing.

I guess we can take them. I ll send them to Lexie, she can cut them apart and see how they re made. She might even be able to reproduce it along with some fire bullets for vampire hunting. I suspect that would be a nasty shock for them to deal with. I m going to assume carrying around weapons like this is illegal?

Sarah nodded, Yeah, unless you have the proper permits.

Not so much looking forward to filling out the paperwork for illegal guns so I ll probably just stick them in the tent. If you want to stay with your sister and make sure things progress nicely with the Domina, I ll teleport back to the pokecenter and turn Marvin over to them with a note on him.

Sarah smiled, Sure thing, can t leave her alone otherwise we might have issues.

Gabrielle reached down and placed her hand firmly around Marvin s neck, This might hurt a bit. She apparated herself and Marvin to outside the pokecenter where she first arrived. She lost her grin as she noticed that the reason the guy was screaming his head off through his gag was that she had left half of the guys foot behind when she apparated. Well shit, good thing that didn t happen to me. At least I hope not. She quickly checked herself and her clothes just to make sure nothing was wrong. Once satisfied that she wasn t missing any body parts, she turned back to glare at the guy screaming in pain. Oh stop whining, you probably aren t going to bleed to death before I can fix that. She quickly drew her wand and waved it over the stump causing the skin to grow over the wound. There, not exactly pretty but you ll live. She smiled as she waved her wand over the guy and burned I m a criminal into his shirt. Oh I almost forgot. She tapped the guy on the forehead with her wand, Stupefy. She grinned as he went rigid, pocketed her wand and walked into the pokecenter. She plastered a frown on her face as she stepped through the doors into the pokecenter. She glanced around the center and had to fight a smile as she noticed the cute nursejoy, she had meet the first time, dreamily reading a book.

Candice placed her bookmark in her book as soon as she heard the front door chime.

Gabrielle tried for a disturbed tone of voice as she said, There s a guy out there that s tied up, he doesn t look well.

Candice looked up in surprise, Oh, I ll have Sam, our officer Jenny, take a look at him. She pushed an intercom button, Sam, there s a man outside that you should probably collect. She took her finger off the button. I ll treat him after she tells me it s safe to. Was there something you needed?

Ah yeah, I needed to run some pokegirls through the cleaner.

So you just need them healed and cleaned?

Gabrielle gave the girl a slight smile as well as an innocent bat of an eyelash, Well, I got two hounds from salvage after this mean old man challenged me in the forest. But they weren t being very nice about things. She used a touch of magic to conjure tears in her eyes, I called my daddy and told them how badly the hounds were behaving, he said to stick them through a level five and be done with it. I couldn t do that. Do you, do you think a level four would work?

Candice nodded, personally she was appalled by the girl s father s idea of just wiping the minds of the pokegirls. She was just glad the young lady had a bit more humanity. I would think a level four taming cycle would be more than enough to correct the problem. You d never have to tell your dad any different. She thought the girl looked rather cute as she wiped her tears away and handed over the pokeballs. I ll get started on that.

Gabrielle sniffled, Thank you. She wandered over to a bench and sat down while the nursejoy went into the back room to run the hounds through the healing machine. She felt bad about deceiving the girl but not badly enough to tell her the truth and risk having the hounds put down as criminals and losing her credits. She blinked in surprise as her pokedex beeped at her, indicating a message. She was glad that Sarah had shown her how to use a few of the functions on her dex, one of which being her message box.

She frowned as she checked the message. It was from a school teacher out in some fly-spec town in the middle of nowhere offering her sixty thousand credits for the both of them. She briefly smiled as she got to the pm part of the message, I know we can t pay you what they re worth but the kids at the orphanage really liked the pictures you posted on poke-bay. We used to have an officerjenny that came through a few times a week and helped keep the ferals down but she was reassigned after they learned she was wasting her time on us. We had a student get hurt fending off the ferals yesterday and I m afraid it s just going to get worse. I don t expect you to help but my kids convinced me to try.

Gabrielle sighed, I can t believe I m even thinking about this. She was almost done running a search on the orphanage in question when the nursejoy came back out with the pokeballs. I don t suppose you have a pokegirl transporter?

Yeah, there s one every couple of hotels, we have one and an officerjenny, which is more than I can say for most of the pokecenters around the ring.

Well I found a person that needs the hounds more than me. She held up the dex with her e-mail displayed, Besides if I go home and daddy finds out that I didn t level five them, he will be very cross with me. If I tell him that they got lost in salvage he will only be mildly annoyed that I didn t win.

Candice was surprised that the girl would sell the hounds for so cheap, I can transfer them near there.

Gabrielle smiled, Alright just let me type in my response. She quickly typed in the response, Dear Miss Kerbs, after reading your message I couldn t in good conscience take your money for the hounds. Please give them a good home and think of me when one of your pokekits comes of age and needs a good home. I believe that a favor for a favor makes a much better world. With loves and kisses Gabrielle. She looked up at the nursejoy, If you could send them for free to the orphanage I would be grateful.

You know there is no guarantee that you ll ever get the favor returned.

Gabrielle grinned, Yeah, but there is always the chance that I might. But if you ll excuse me I should be getting back to the road. I have a ways to go before my feet can rest.

She smiled, Of course, I ll send these girls along.

Gabrielle smiled as she walked down the hallway and out of sight, Ah well at least they re getting a good home. She looked around making sure no could see her before apparating with a small pop back to where she left her girls.

Sarah jumped back a step as Gabrielle suddenly appeared, You okay? I was a little afraid when I found that when you left. She pointed a finger at the bloody half of a foot laying in the dirt untouched.

Yeah, don t worry it was the guy s foot. I guess I hadn t practiced enough to side-along apparate with an adult. I ll do better next time, promise. She grinned as she drew her wand, pointed it at the foot and gave the wand a flick.

Sarah blinked as the foot vanished into thin air, That s a little scary Gabby.

Everyone always says that. Honestly it s not like he needs it anymore. I ll work on my slide along just in case I have to take someone I like. So how s Tabby doing learning that technique?

She s working hard at it. It might be a while though, at least a couple of days I think, maybe as long as a week.

I guess that sort of changes things, I don t really want Leo to see the guy tied to a tree.

He would flip?

Gabrielle nodded, I would have to explain why and then Leo would do horrible things to the guy with his sword that would upset Tiffany. And I don t really want to do that. No, I think the best bet is to simply let the Domina play for a while then use him for feral bait.

What about the memory spell work?

Nah, mom would spank my hide raw if I ever used that spell or any other memory alteration spell without the person s consent. It s a large no-no.

But she s okay with you leaving the bad guys for dead in the middle of a forest?

I know it s a bit odd really now that I think about it. She glanced up at the sky, While we have some daylight we should probably let Tabby get as much practice as she can before we head to back to the tent.

Sarah nodded, We might even be able to catch some ferals while we wait.

Leo wasn t sure if he should to be cross with his sister or just happy that she was back as she limped into the tent followed closely by an abashed Tabby and Sarah. It was a couple hours after she had said they were going to be back and she was limping as they stumbled in, not to mention her clothes were a ragged mess of blood stains and rips, none of these facts made him happy.

She glared at Leo, I love the girls, but I really need a pokegirl that can deal with bug types, and I fucking hate plant types, especially the ones that try to eat you. Seriously, I m never going out at night in this place again. Oh and get the med kit.

Leo blinked, What s wrong?

I m a little dizzy, it might be from the pain of having my legs cut up by vine whip and or maybe the energy I spent healing myself so that I didn t bleed to death, no, no I know it s the fucking energy it took to teleport with these girls as I was running on mangled legs. It could also be from the thousand fucking needles I had to remove with magic then heal before I died of blood loss. Now I want the fucking med kit.

Leo rushed to get the med kit, You don t have to scream.

Gabrielle winced, Sarah honey, do you think you can take my bag before I fall over?

Sarah rushed over and carefully helped Gabrielle remove her bag before setting it down on the table.

Gabrielle winced as she carefully peeled her clothes off and tossed them on the ground, Hand me the aspirin.

Leo came back over with the mid kit and handed the aspirin to Gabrielle. So what happened?

Gabrielle popped the lid open and carefully shook two tablets out of the small bottle into her hand. She grimaced as she gulped the two tablets down. We were trying to hurry up and teach Tabby the domina s dominate technique when it started to get dark. We knew that there was a chance that the prisoner we tied up would attract ferals especially after the domina spent some time with him. Anyways the stupid prisoner attracted some ferals alright, just more than we planned on. Still we would have been fine if it had only been the first group of feral plant types that attacked.

Leo was trying not to stare at all of the blood covering his sister s skin.

Luckily I got my arms up to cover my face when I got hit with a volley of needles. It wasn t going so badly, we had even managed to capture most of the plant types when the real problems started. The noise and mess had attracted some bug types, which is when things went to shit. Tabby blinked to behind a nearby tree and Sarah curled up in a ball. Only thing that saved me was the Domina actually being a good distraction and some quick spell work on my part.

Leo glanced down at his sister s thighs where there were still wicked looking gashes, How come you didn t heal those?

I did, and several other major wounds as well. I feel like shit, I hurt like hell and I want to sleep badly. In the morning we are going to have a long talk about telling me things I need to know. Like I hate bugs, really means I have an irrational fear of the damn things and freeze up. That would have been nice to know. She sighed as she carefully backed up to the table and leaned on it carefully. Please just no more damn questions until the morning.

Gabrielle still felt like crap even after a shower and allowing Sarah to hit her a few times with her heal card. She flopped down on her empty bed. She was angry at herself for not doing better against the pack of ferals, she was angry that the girls hadn t told her they were petrified of bugs. Mostly she was just angry that she had yelled at her girls. She was really trying to focus on the bright side of things. She was just glad that no one was seriously hurt, well other than the prisoner that got stabbed through the heart by that bug, but he didn t count. At least I can use it as a learning experience, the healing potions need to go on my belt where I can actually reach them rather than my backpack.

Tabby gave a hesitant smile from the door way, Can we come in?

Gabrielle nodded, Yeah, look I m sorry.

Tabby slipped inside the room followed by Sarah, We re sorry, we should have been more clear about the bugs.

Gabrielle nodded, You know this means that we are going to have to get someone else in the harem that can crush bugs for us.

Tabby nodded, That would be nice. Do you think I could sleep in here tonight? I m still freaked over the bugs.

Gabrielle rolled her eyes, What about you Sarah? You still freaked about them?

She nodded, I wish I wasn t but I m really, really scared of them, I don t even know why.

Gabrielle held the covers open for the girls to crawl in, It s nice and toasty, get in.

Tabby carefully set her top hat on the desk before sliding under the covers and crawling over Gabrielle to leave her sister a spot next to Gabrielle.

Sarah slipped under the covers and snuggled up to Gabrielle, We okay?

Gabrielle relaxed as she let the covers fall back to cover Sarah. Not sure, but we will be.

Leo had a grin on his face as he snuggled in the bed with Laura and Tiffany. You know if we get too many more girls we aren t all going to be able to fit on the bed.

Tiffany smiled, Nah it just means we ll need a larger bed. So are you planning on getting more girls?

I m not in any hurry but I wouldn t mind at least a few more. That is if we find some that we can all deal with.

Laura was a little hesitant as she said, You mean we get to help you pick any new ones out?

Why not? I mean it s a group effort, isn t it?

Laura smiled as the hand that had been inching along her stomach trailed down to graze her crotch for a brief few seconds before moving back upward slowly. You can t just do that then stop.

Leo frowned, Do what and then stop?

Tiffany giggled as she worked her hand back south, I think she was referring to my playing. Can talk about what we want for the girl in morning.

Laura nodded, Yeah, just don t stop.

Leo laughed, What am I supposed to do with you two?

Tiffany giggled, Join in.

How exactly?

Well there aren t any hands on her breasts.

Excellent suggestion. ~

Gabrielle blinked awake as she felt a furry tail curling up her leg, Tabby you awake?

Tabby blinked, she was slightly blurry eyed as she woke up, What? I was just having the best dream.

Gabrielle smirked as she reached up and scratched the girl s cat ears, I bet you were. She blinked as she heard a strange sound coming from Tabby, Is that purring?

Sarah chuckled as her sister stopped purring, She does that when you scratch her ears. Well not when I do it, but Tiff can get her to purr really well.

Tabby blushed slightly, Hey.

Gabrielle chuckled, It s cute. So what does she do if you pet her tail?

Sarah chuckled, You d have to ask Tiff. I m guessing purr very loudly.

Tabby slipped out from under the covers and rolled to her feet. She was blushing slightly when she straightened out her shirt and flipped the top hat back on her head. I ll just be getting breakfast while you two play.

Gabrielle smiled as she watched Tabby s tush until it disappeared around the doorframe. She s rather cute.

Sarah grinned, Yeah, you know if you really want to make her happy you should talk to Tiff about it.

Gabrielle grinned, I just might have to do that, but first I think I d like to make you happy. Then we can get some breakfast. She leaned in and licked each of Sarah s nipples before moving to kiss her on the lips.

Sarah giggled at the sensation before returning the kiss.

Leo smiled as a naked Gabrielle and Sarah wandered into the living room, Feeling better?

Much.

Good, it s your turn to cook. Leo smiled as he tossed an apron at his sister.

Gabrielle caught the apron, Alright but after that Sarah and I are going to get dressed then head to the ranch and pay one of the girls to teleport us to a major city. I want to unload the pokegirls, get some supplies and that mana crystal you wanted for Tiffany.

You should check to see if they have any stat ups while you re at it.

Gabrielle grinned, Way ahead of you, I m going to try to use the container the tab came in to scry for more of the same. If that doesn t work I ll just run around town searching all of the shops I can find.

Think it will work?

Not sure but it s worth a shot. Gabrielle slipped the apron on and started working on cooking.

Leo chuckled as he watched Laura and Tiff watching Gabby cook, If you like cooking that much we ll have to get a cooking T2.

Tabby grinned, I don t think it s the cooking they enjoy, so much as the show.

Sarah chuckled, Anything else we need to get?

Leo shrugged, Just play it by ear.

She nodded, alright.


	24. Pokegirls the other white meat

Disclaimer: Cannibalistic scene included, dark chapter read at own risk.

Gabrielle sighed as she looked around the new city she found herself in, "London, ah well I guess it could have been worse."

Sarah smiled, "Do you have a problem with London?"

"Nah, it's just not my London. So it's sort of the same and sort of different. I still think we got swindled."

"Well, I didn't say Tess was a good friend."

Gabrielle muttered something that could have been, "Greedy witch," though it could just have easily been "Greedy bitch."

"So what's first on the list?"

"I'm planning on heading to Windsor Stadium to visit a contact of Wenaldo's to dump off all of the pokegirls. Even without selling the domina, the fearleader and one of the weasel girls we are still going to make a lot."

"So you think we can get out of there without being challenged?"

"Not a chance in hell but I have been reading up on the challenge laws so I have some ideas on how to deal with it, if I don't just refuse outright."

"As long as you don't lose me I'll be happy."

"I've got no plans for doing that." Gabrielle smiled as she caught sight of the Windsor Stadium.

Gabrielle was faintly amused that she had managed to avoid a fight challenge until after she had dumped all of the pokegirls she had planned on selling only to get three challengers at once the minute she stepped away from the trader's booth. Apparently it was a hot spot to challenge people. She let the guys that challenged her argue for a few seconds before glaring at the stupidest looking one. Though really both of the guys seemed cut from the same cloth as Goyle, large, dumb and rather violent. "Hey, you challenged me, I believe the typical course here is for you to set the stakes and for me to respond with the battlefield conditions. As I don't really plan on losing I'm willing to entertain a fight with each depending. Just a second and let me turn the recorder on." She flipped a switch on her pokedex to switch it to record mode. "Alright so what do you want out of the challenge?"

The ugliest one puffed himself up, "I want your clowmystic in salvage."

"If I win?"

"I'll let you see my girls and pick one."

Gabrielle turned to the next guy, "What about you?"

"I'll happily take your clowmystic as salvage."

"And I win I get to see your girls and pick one?"

The guy nodded, "Yeah."

Gabrielle sighed and turned to the girl, "What about you?"

She gave Gabrielle an ice hard look, "I'm not all that content with just your clowmystic if you're still standing after these two idiots get done with you I want the clowmystic and one other random pokegirl from your collection."

Gabrielle frowned, "So I get to see one of yours and than pick one random?"

She shrugged, "It's not going to matter as you'll never beat Gloria. So sure, that's fair enough."

Gabrielle nodded absently as if it made little difference to her, "I had planned to spend the day shopping with daddy's money but fighting my first official pokebattle sounds like an amusing endeavor. Let's see, as you've challenged me, I believe it's my job to set the battle conditions. One pokegirl, no substitutions, no guns allowed grand melee with a five second window at the beginning before you can release your first pokegirl. Also I would love it if whoever fought second and third didn't get to see the other matches. Daddy said I shouldn't ever let people see all my tricks up front."

The girl frowned, "What do you need the start time for?"

Gabrielle smiled, "Daddy always said I should study my opponent's battle stance before a fight."

The girl nodded, "Fine, but no way am I going second if this is your first duel, I get to fight first or the deal is off."

Gabrielle grinned, "Works for me, let's go grab an official and get this started. That is if going second works for you boys?"

The two goons grumbled, "Fine."

She tossed a thought at Sarah, 'Going to have to pokeball you now love.'

Sarah's tossed back thought before being hit with the pokebeam was 'Better have a plan master.'

Raina frowned as Gabrielle didn't protest her desire to start twenty feet apart. She wasn't sure what to think of the girl but figured she would just hurry up and get the fight over with. 'I guess my guess that she was going to try to hit me wasn't true. I'll just have to be fast on the draw and make sure Gloria trounces this girl.'

The announcer/judge today was a large guy that had a deep booming voice, "This is an official duel please remember to have your recording devices turned on."

Gabrielle nodded, hers was still on from before as she had wanted to make sure everyone played fairly. She thought that was a bit hypocritical as she really wasn't going to play fair, legal but not fair.

The announcer waved his hand for silence from the crowd that had gathered, "These two lovely ladies are playing for salvage. This match is a bit different from what we normally see here. The contestants will have five seconds at the start of the match to size each other up before they release their pokegirls for a grand melee. That's right folks you're in for a special treat!" He waited for the crowd to calm down a bit before gesturing to the contestants, "You may begin on five."

Even though she had home field advantage Raina couldn't help a shiver that crept down her spine at the way the girl had shifted from spoiled rich kid to battle hardened tamer as she had stepped into the ring. Even through she was expecting something strange she wasn't expecting her opponent to toss black fire at her the second the judge hit five. She had just barely dodged that when she felt like she got hit by a cattle pod in the chest as bolt of red flew out of nowhere. She frantically reached for her pokeball, screw the rules, she didn't want to die. She had almost made it when another blast sent her into unconsciousness.

Gabrielle smiled when the shocked announcer finally waved his hand, "Raina is unable to battle, the match goes to the challenged."

Gabrielle grinned, "If you don't mind I'll get my prize after I beat the other two guys. Besides I think she's out for a while."

Roy Mcgovern wasn't feeling very excited by the shocked silence of the crowd not to mention one of the young official's whispered "May the gods have mercy on your soul," as he was lead out into the field of combat.

Now if Roy was feeling less than excited, Nat was downright terrified as he was lead out onto the field less than a minute later. The fact that his old buddy Roy looked dead as a few people dragged him from the field didn't help his nerves at all. It had sounded like a great deal at the time, tag team the bitch with Roy and walk away with a rare pokegirl. He figured his only chance was to run full out at the girl and strike her because whatever she was using to battle had crushed Roy's pokegirls like it was nothing. He tried not to show his nerves as he sneered at the girl as he waited for the fight to start.

Gabrielle smiled as the announcer said five and the guy charged at her, her smile brightened as she slid forward to meet his charge with a snap kick to the guy's nuts that drove him to his knees with a look of shock plastered to his ugly face. The look of shock only lasted on the guys face a second before her spinning hook kick robbed him of consciousness. 'Even pulled my punches, stupid idiot.' "Guess I win."

The announcer nodded, "Nat is unable to battle."

Gabrielle grinned as she released Sarah.

Sarah looked around frantically for someone to fight.

Gabrielle chuckled, "No worries, the plan worked. Though I do need you to help me pick out which pokegirls to keep."

"They better be cute."

Gabrielle shivered as she looked over the list of pokegirls the girl possessed. "Holy shit, that's what she was going to fight with? A fucking Neo-Iczel." She quickly pulled up the entry and looked at the picture Raina had of her Neo-Iczel. Normally she would interview each one before choosing but as she was already going to pick the Neo-Iczel with the next one being a random pick she didn't want to have to interview the girls only to find out that she didn't randomly get the one she wanted. She was slightly disgusted with herself for picking the Neo-Iczel based more on looks and power level than personality. She looked in her mid to late twenties with a face that would have been cute if she would have just smiled. But hey she liked the girl's dark hair and sweet green eyes. "I'll take the Neo-Iczel and then I'll let luck choose the next one." She pointed to one of the random laid out pokeballs. "That one."

The official handed it over, "How do you want to do the next pick?"

"I guess just open them and let me talk to them, unless there is a problem with that?"

He shook his head, "I guess not."

Helen had been the last of the pokegirls to tell her story, she hadn't known how she had gotten there as the last few things she did remember were getting a kiss from her mother, a red flash, and then the strange feeling of drifting that being in a pokeball gave you. She was fairly sure that the girl wouldn't even look at her twice compared to some of the other pokegirls that were lined up. It was therefore a surprise when the girl smiled and with a very pleasant voice asked two questions that doomed her hopes for getting selected.

Gabrielle smiled, "Do you have any sex battle skills or regular combat skills?"

Helen shook her head, "I'm sorry I'm a virgin, and I don't have any combat skills." She was faintly surprised when the girl just nodded before turning to the girl next to her.

"So what do you think Sarah?"

Helen wasn't sure if she should blush or smile as the girl looked her over carefully.

Sarah smiled at the tall very near human looking girl, "Can you please turn around?" She smiled when the milktit turned around slowly to show off a nice slender body with the obvious exception being the large C maybe D cup breasts. She was slightly disappointed that the girl didn't have a tail, though the adorable little cow horns on her head made up for it. She wasn't sure why Gabrielle was considering her but she was cute and unlike the rest of the bunch seemed way too nice to leave in a jerks hands.

"She's very cute and seems nice, which is more than I can say for the rest of the choices."

Gabrielle nodded, "Works for me. You can put the rest of that guy's pokegirls away." She carefully placed Helen's pokeball in her pocket as the official handed it to her. She looked over the next guy's sneering selection with disgust, some of them were uncommon and according to her dex rather powerful at least as far as she could tell but none of them were what she wanted in a harem girl. "I'll open the bidding to the crowd. You want it and offer enough credits, I'll pick it then transfer it to you." She turned to the official, "That work?"

The official nodded, "Yeah."

Sarah smiled as she herded the cow girl over to stand next to them. "Welcome to the club. I'm Sarah your new alpha. If you don't like it you can take it up with her." She nodded at Gabrielle.

Gabrielle had to force herself to not chuckle as Sarah named herself alpha, though they hadn't officially talked about it the choice worked well enough as far as she was concerned.

Gabrielle grinned as they walked down the street, "A hundred and ten thousand for the minotaura, I can see how she might be useful and rare but goddess she was so ugly just the thought of sleeping with her… Still not too bad all things considered."

"So where we off to first?" Sarah smiled as she looked over the cow girl again. "We need some better clothes, or just a collar of warmth for all of the girls."

"Now that has potential, I probably wouldn't be the first girl with a completely naked harem but still it might be worth it." She snickered as Sarah blushed as she realized that she had been included in the naked part. "I was actually thinking that we should do what we came for and shop for the rare items I wanted." She lowered her voice and glanced around just to make sure no one was close enough to hear, "I wouldn't mind looking around for some spell books either. I just wish there was a Leaky Cauldron around here, it would make things easier."

Sarah rolled her eyes at yet another strange saying her mistress used. She would have to make a list one of these days.

Helen was ready to collapse from exhaustion by the time Sarah placed her in a pokeball. They had ran around to dozens of shops already and had dozens more to go before night and then a few more after that depending on how things went. Gabrielle wasn't even sure about keeping Sarah out for this next shop based on the warning the last shop owner had given her but not to have a pokegirl out would be even worse. She tried for calm as she walked into an unnamed very dark and dirty looking shop tucked at the far end of a dark and slimy alley.

Sarah sighed, she knew Gabrielle was following a map they had prepared once they got to London but she wasn't sure what the various colors on it meant. While she knew there was one, there didn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to which shops they went in. Sometimes Gabrielle would buy stuff and sometimes she would shake her head at the price before leaving. Which is how they found themselves at this particular shop. Despite Gabrielle's warning she was more than a little scared as she looked around at the semi human looking skulls around the place. She almost let out as gasp as she noticed that none of the pokegirls standing around the shop were moving. She had to force herself to not lose the contents of her stomach as she realized that they were stuffed pokegirls. There were also several displayed spread eagled on the various walls. It was like a taxidermy shop of old only for pokegirls. It was horrifying, everything from very near humans to animorphs that hardly looked human. She wanted nothing so much as to run and hide or at least hide behind Gabrielle but she had been told to not show fear.

Gabrielle's stomach tried to twist into knots as she realized that all of the pokegirls were stuffed. She couldn't imagine doing that to a demon let alone a human. She hadn't really wanted to come in after looking at the outside of the building but the owner of the last shop had hinted that certain things could be acquired here that weren't sold other places. And if the stuff in the display cases was any indication it was true. She wasn't quite sure what type of pokegirl the owner had in her bloodline but whatever it was she looked like a hag.

The dirty looking old women glanced up from her dinner, "Ah what brings you to Agatha's rare shop?"

Gabrielle privately didn't like how the old lady was staring at her or Sarah, somewhat like they were pieces of meat. This was made especially creepy by the fact that there were dozens of dead pokegirls stuffed and standing around the stop in some sick mockery of life. She had to force herself to keep her voice calm, "I'm looking to buy some T2s and evolution stones. Maybe see what else you got for sale."

The women grinned, "Have a look around dearie."

Gabrielle felt a shiver of revulsion slither down her spine but she simply nodded promising herself she would keep an eye on the old hag. She was just happy she had cast a see the unseen spell before walking in here. It would help with traps, magical or otherwise, as well as telling her if a product was good or spoiled. She didn't trust the old women as far as Leo could throw her without magic.

Agatha was faintly surprised when she noticed the young girl was picking through the store's selection with an eye for quality. At least the girl was buying a number of items. So it wasn't a complete waste. She was faintly surprised when the girl picked up a grim looking skull on display and laughed. Still she wasn't her normal customer. Normally her customers were bitter ex-tamers that had had enough from one of their pokegirls and wanted the bitch stuffed. Still new blood couldn't hurt especially if they were going to buy some rare items.

Gabrielle worked quickly as she gathered up quite a few T2s as well as the three mana crystals the shop had. The things were rare and typically involved with advancing magic types so she figured she would grab them. She was particularly delighted to find five doses of the pokegirl durability drug that weren't spoiled. She even found one good one that increased a girl's technique number out of a handful of spoiled packages. She carefully placed those in her basket before heading over toward the section that contained elemental pistols and the ammo. She selected a few copies of different ammo types that she didn't already have. She figured the more examples the better for reverse engineering. She frowned, she had been trying to avoid looking at the door that went into a backroom but it was outlined in green fire from her spell, which made her think that something important was back there that she needed to see. She busied herself looking through the odds and ends while she worked up her courage. Her face almost broke out into a smile despite everything as she looked at the collar of warmth displayed, at least until she saw the price tag. 'I guess I'll be making my own.'

Gabrielle as she walked up to the counter had her desire to vomit renewed tenfold as she caught a smell that was sadly recognizable. She had been on a demon hunt a few years ago the first time she had smelled that stench. Uncle Xander, a couple slayers and her had been chasing these vampires down in the sewers when quite by accident they had run into a group of demons that thought cooked human flesh was a great meal. Needless to say they had slaughtered those demons faster than the clean up took. She hadn't meant to say it but as she looked at Agatha's dinner it just slipped out, "Human meat."

Agatha smiled, "Pokegirl actually. You ready to ring up or do my dining habits disgust you?"

Gabrielle was honestly quite revolted but as that wasn't going to help and could quite possibly get her killed she let her magic raise a touch to calm her fear and emotions as she shrugged, "Yeah I think I have what I want, though I am curious about the door."

"It's my workroom where I have my current project."

"I'm guessing that's where the meat comes from, as well as the wall ornaments?"

"Yeah, she's still alive if you want to see."

Sarah couldn't believe it when her mistress gave her a mental command to stay, she so didn't want her mistress going in there but knew she could take care of herself, at least she hoped she could.

Gabrielle let Agatha open the door and walk through into a well lit concrete room with a drain and showerheads above. Chained to the wall by a number of chains was a bloody wreck of a young girl. The smell of old blood and bile almost drove her to her knees. Fresh blood she could handle and in fact found it quite tasty but there was nothing appealing about the blood that covered the girl. The girl's skin what little she could see of it that wasn't covered in blood or angry welts or bandages keeping her insides from falling out, was a pale bluish color. She could see from the bits of scalp left to the girl that her hair had once been a bright purple. The girl's hands were mutilated wrecks with only stumps of fingers left on each hand. The girl had on white panties that were more a mockery of decency than anything else as the girls chest looked like it had been gnawed off. Taken with the rest of everything that had probably happened to the girl, the fact that her tongue was missing was probably one of the less horrible things that had happened to her.

Agatha smiled, "You like my artwork? She's very tasty to."

Gabrielle couldn't keep the disgust off her face completely so she turned it into a sneer, "What was she?"

"Well if I hadn't ripped off her ears it might be easier to tell. She's a dark elf, she used to be my step daughter you see. My husband was more than a bit disgusted that his daughter went through threshold and turned into an elf. Well the sweet man that he is, knew that I liked her so he gave her to me. She didn't like my games, so I jammed a dark stone up her ass and laughed as she changed into something more useful. Sadly even after the transformation she couldn't keep a civil tongue so I cut it out. I like cutting bits off her and eating them, it reminds her who's boss. Every now and then I run her through the healing machine then I get to start all over. I'm sure at some point I'll get bored and sell her or stuff her."

Gabrielle nodded, "Well I wouldn't mind a dark elf but the normal look disgusts me. How much to buy her and use her as breeding material?"

Agatha frowned, "Well she is getting boring, though her father will be sad to see her go. He so enjoys taking her up the ass, but I'm sure that's only because we were saving her virginity as a special treat." She glanced down at Gabrielle's large basket of rare items, "For such a valued customer I'd be willing to part with her for say one hundred thousand."

"My brother will be so pleased, add her to the list. I believe I'm ready to pay and leave now."

Gabrielle stepped into the sunlight and promptly emptied her stomach, she felt like taking a scalding hot shower until she felt clean but knew that she wasn't going to feel clean for a long time. She brushed the back of her mouth with her hand. She glanced over to where Sarah was standing, she was just glad that Sarah hadn't seen the backroom. "Sarah, next time I suggest going into the dark creepy alleyways say something. It seriously creeps me out that the cops most likely wouldn't do anything as pokegirls are just property. I just wi… it would be nice if I could have just killed her but there were too many wards up on her place. Hopefully we can come back and clean this place out later but first I need to get some place I can get the stench out of my nose."

She felt mildly better after walking around in the sunlight for a while even if it was bright enough that she needed her shades. She wasn't sure what to do about the dark elf, it had just been a reflex, save the girl and get the hell out of the store. She sighed, her whole harem was composed of misfits and rejects. Now that she had some time to think about things, she wasn't sure how to deal with the dark elf or even the neo-iczel. "That could have went better, but at least we got some more supplies. I want to finish up my searching for stuff before word gets around that someone is buying up all of the stat increasing drugs as well as the other stuff. Do you want me to pokeball you? Or do you want to keep marching around with me?"

Sarah shrugged, "I'm not tired, just creeped out. And I don't know how we are going to deal with a Neo-Iczel that's way more powerful than I am. Not to mention a most likely neurotic dark elf. Hell the Fox girl is likely to be cake compared to either one of those. Can I ask you a question?"

Gabrielle shrugged, "I'm tired, cranky and scared so be careful I might tell the truth."

"Why did you take the milktit verses the others?"

Gabrielle sighed, "Three reasons really, she was nice and didn't belong in a prick's harem, two we really could use the milk, and three she has some magical ability."

"The dark elf?"

Gabrielle sighed, "If I say she does are you going to think less of me?"

"Only if you tell me you wouldn't have saved her if she didn't."

"I would have saved her either way."

Sarah smiled brightly as she pulled Gabrielle into a hug, "We're lucky to have you."

Gabrielle pulled out the map of London after Sarah released her from her hug. She had used the map as a focus point for the divination spell to find the various different the stat ups. Now it was just a simple matter of tracking down dozens of dots on a map that wasn't an exact match any more. "Yeah so damn easy, I hate London."

Sarah chuckled as they headed off to find the next store. "It can't be worse than the last store."


	25. Pets and leashes

Gabrielle nervously glanced over her shoulder as she made her way across the street from the store of hell, otherwise known as the pink store of oh my goddess I can't see straight. She was half afraid the shopkeeper would follow her out for some reason. She shuddered as she made a promise to herself not to ever say something can't be worse. The poor cat girl pet of the owner had been the worst. She hadn't been sure if she should laugh or cry as she remembered the three stick-on-bows the girl had for clothing if you didn't count the dozens of frilly pink ribbons that made her tail look like a garishly colored dust mop.

Sarah chuckled, "I almost feel sorry for the cat girl, I can't imagine Tabby putting up with pink ribbons like that."

"Yeah not so much."

"So what other stores we going to?"

"Well I'm almost out of money so we should probably just head to the pokecenter and deal with the couple of new additions."

"I hope you aren't upset with me for saying I'm your alpha."

"Nah if you want the job, it's yours."

"Does that mean I get to help you break the new girls in?"

"If you want."

Gabrielle sighed as she finished one last cleaning spell on the restraints in the taming room. She really didn't trust the people to clean everything after every use. "I'm thinking we have a chat with the Neo Iczel first. Hopefully we can convince her to spend some time training the rest of the girls before we send her to Illyria, or figure out something else to do with her."

"Oh joy, that's just going to be lots of fun." Sarah noted sarcastically.

"Well don't you want to get better? She's the biggest baddest challenge I can toss at you girls. So take it or leave it."

Sarah grumbled, "Still, I can't help but feel like this is a bad idea."

"So noted." Gabrielle pulled a small salt shaker that she had swiped from one of the café tables from her pocket. She flicked the lid open and carefully used the salt to form a person sized circle on the ground. It was really only big enough for a person to stand.

"What are you doing?"

"A little bit of psychological warfare."

"Care to explain?"

"Well there really isn't a way to get the Neo-Iczel into the restraints before she bashes my head in. So I was thinking that maybe if I use the salt as a focus and toss a shield up it might last for like a hit or two and convince the girl that she's trapped in the salt circle."

"And if it doesn't?"

"Then we return her to her pokeball and run her through a level four." She shook her head, "I don't really want to have to do that." She carefully pressed the button to release the Neo-Iczel. She smiled as the red beam jumped out and deposited the girl into the middle of the salt ring. She quickly used the girl's moment of confusion to bring up the shield. She winced as the girl caused it to waver just by pushing on it. She really didn't want to see what would happen to her hasty spell work if the girl actually kept pushing or used a mystical technique on it. "Before you freak, you should watch the movie on the dex." She carefully held the dex up as the Neo-Iczel pushed on the shield.

Gloria's frown turned into a sneer as she finished watching the dex's movie. "You cheated, I would have crushed you. Your pet's force field isn't going to hold me forever."

"Yeah you probably would, as for the force field it's not designed to. I just wanted the chance to show you that you had been legally captured before you tried to crush my head. I'm not however all that interested in keeping you."

Gloria was more than slightly surprised, "What do you two plan to do with me?"

"Do you want to go back to your previous master?"

"I have served that family for as long as I can remember, so yes I would rather go back if I was able."

"Fair enough. I'll make you a deal, I want a litter of your children and two weeks of your time training my harem. Do this for me and I'll return you to your previous master."

"Why?"

"Because you have your life and you obviously love your tamer. Plus I don't have a harem strong enough to keep you happy. You would be continually yelling at my girls to get better and it would drive them insane. I figure any longer than two weeks and they would try to knife you in your sleep. There is also the fact that you're too old for me to sleep with. So will you sign a magical contract stating that your children for this first litter are mine?"

Gloria didn't really see a way out of the situation, on one hand she would have to be pregnant for nine months which wasn't something she wanted to consider, on the other hand her new owner could just level five her and breed her anyways and she wouldn't even remember her life. When faced with choices such as that, she sighed, "I'll sign."

Gabrielle smiled, "Great, I'll send a message to your owner. Then we can find a breeder that will rent out their breeding chamber."

Gloria was just glad that she wasn't going to have to take care of the little rats otherwise it would have been sheer hell as she personally hated children. "Just remember as soon as they're born."

Gabrielle nodded, "Works for me." She handed Gloria the contract.

She promptly looked over the contract, "What no intentionally harming your harem during training? Blah, you're coddling them." She shrugged after signing the contract, "Not really my concern though. Can you stick me back in my pokeball now?"

Gabrielle barely waited for her to finish her sentence before she scuffed the line of salt and pressed the button to return Gloria to her pokeball. "That is one annoying girl."

"You sure you actually want her children?"

"I remember what the pokedex said about them. Most of that crap is learned behavior, the arrogance they have genetically doesn't necessarily mean they are genetically assholes it just means they think they are better than everyone, which I'll admit often works out the same. I'm hopeful that Raisa or Illyria can beat some sense into them as they grow up. How about we move on to more pleasant things?"

"Like?"

Gabrielle grinned as she pulled a series of bottles out of her pokepack, "Why don't you start working on Helen. I'll join you two after I finish writing this letter to Gloria's person." She reached down to her belt, grabbed Helen's poke ball and thumbed the release.

Sarah smiled as Helen appeared, "Heya sexy," She held up one of the empty glass milk bottles, "Got milk?" She watched in amusement as Helen's whole face turned bright red.

"Hey, just because these things don't stop is no excuse for making me blush."

Sarah smiled, "I'm sorry but if you come over and sit with me I'll help you out."

Helen nodded, "It's just a bit frustrating is all. I've never had someone help me with this before."

"What did you do before?"

"Just sort of tried as best I could myself."

Sarah chuckled, "You know it works better without your shirt." She couldn't tell if Helen's face got redder or not as Helen slipped out of her shirt. She reached out to touch Helen's breasts but stopped a few inches away. "May I?"

Helen didn't trust herself to speak so she just nodded.

Sarah grinned as she ran her fingers along the top of her breasts, "They're soft but sort of strangely elastic." She smiled as Helen shivered in pleasure. She couldn't help but caress her breasts a touch as she waited for Helen to explain exactly how she was supposed to milk her.

Gabrielle was having a hard time tuning the girls out as she finished up her message to Gloria's owner. The scents alone were heavy in the room not to mention the sound of the girl's breathing. She turned the pokedex off and set it on the counter before turning to watch the two girls play. It looked to her like more of the milk had ended up on Sarah or the floor than in the bottles. Of course nether one of them seemed to mind much. She could feel her own nipples rubbing against her shirt as she made her way over to the pair. "Is there room for one more?"

Helen smiled dazedly down at Gabrielle, "Yes."

Gabrielle smiled as she leaned in and gently kissed Helen's right nipple. She bit down being careful to avoid cutting the nipple with her teeth. She smiled at Helen's slight hiss of pleasure. She closed her lips around the nipple and sucked until she tasted the sweet warm milk. It was a little different than the cow's milk she was used to, but not unpleasantly so. She would definitely have to enjoy her fill later but first she wanted something else. She smiled as she bent down to kneel in front of Helen. "Can I play?"

Helen felt like she was in a dream as she slid her skirt down.

Gabrielle was delighted by the way the skirt fell to the ground revealing slightly more than peach fuzz. She smiled as she reached into her pocket and removed some of the twin's special half strength Ton-Tongue toffee which unlike the normal stuff only made your tongue a few inches longer. She quickly unwrapped it and swallowed it. Her tongue was already almost freakishly long when she stretched it out but it quickly grew to grotesque proportions as the magic in the toffee worked its way into her tongue.

Sarah's eyes widened as she noticed Gabrielle's freakishly long tongue. "I'm so going to want some of that."

Gabrielle grinned before licking Helen's wet crotch. It didn't take her too long before she was enjoying using her tongue to slip inside of her.

Sarah couldn't help her hand slipping between her legs almost of it's own volition as she watched her new friends play a very sensual game if odd game. She was almost disappointed when after only a few seconds Helen shuddered for a long moment then relaxed.

Gabrielle grinned as she helped Helen onto the bed so she could relax. She chuckled at the sleepily whispered, "milktit," coming from Helen. She turned and grinned at Sarah before tossing her a mental message, 'I could help you with that if you want.'

"Please, anything."

'Anything?'

Sarah shimmied out of her skirt, "Anything, just take me."

Gabrielle smiled and lightly pushed her back into a table so she could kneel down and start working with her tongue. 'If you insist.'

A while later Sarah was staring at the leash in Gabrielle's hand as if it was a poisonous snake. "Oh come on, you can't expect me to wear that?"

Gabrielle grinned, "Hey you said you would do anything I wanted, I've always wanted to have a naked girl on a leash and wander around town. I'm finally in a place where it's legal. Please? Pretty please with sugar on top?"

Sarah sighed, "I guess it will be sort of fun."

Gabrielle grinned as she pulled out a light chain leash and a fuzzy leather collar from her pack and handed it to Sarah, "That's the spirit."

Sarah carefully placed the collar around her own neck, clipped the leash to it and handed it to Gabrielle. "So where are we going 'Master?'"

Gabrielle smiled as she pokeballed the sleeping Helen before taking the leash from Sarah. "I don't know, take your shoes and a towel and I guess we can just walk around a bit. I'm hoping to get the mess with Gloria sorted before we head back to train.

Sarah smiled, "You know we really should deal with the Dark Elf when we get back."

"There is supposed to be a therapist within walking distance so we could go there."

Sarah nodded, "That would be nice."

Gabrielle couldn't help but smile at some of the jealous looks a few teenagers were giving her. She was having a very good time, they had dropped the dark elf off at the therapist's office paid an annoyingly large fee for them to take a look at the girl and hopefully do something about her problems. She found herself wondering how her sisters were doing with their new school. She figured she might have to write them soon.

"Coin for your thoughts?"

"I'm not sure they are worth a coin. I was just thinking that we should probably get back and see how much trouble Leo has gotten himself in."

Sarah grinned, "Sounds good."

Leo muttered as he shoved his text books to the edge of the table, "Stupid books."

Tabby frowned at Leo from her spot sprawled on the top of the couch, "I'm guessing you're not finding what you're looking for?"

"Not really no, there are a few spells I could possible use to do some alterations to Tiffany after she changes but nothing that would prevent some of the changes in the first place."

"Well what about Gabrielle?"

"If it's a transmutation spell she can probably pull it off. But I don't really want to have to ask her."

"You're jealous aren't you?"

Leo chuckled, "I'm not sure jealous is the right word, she's just so damn frustrating some times. She's my half sister, different mothers. Her mother happens to have a different type of magic than our father. My mother wasn't a witch, so she has more magical power than I do. You have an idea what it's like growing up with a sister that can turn invisible?"

Tabby grinned, "No but my sister does."

"I bet you got into a lot of trouble as a kid."

"I'm sure I would have if I had been caught. Almost got caught a few times raiding my sister's room for her diary. She's a naughty girl."

Leo smiled, "Oh?"

"If I tell you something about my sister will you tell me about something about your sister?"

Leo grinned, "Provided it's not something she would kill me for."

"Well she was the girl that made Tiffany scream bunnygirl."

Leo chuckled, "I'll have to ask Tiff how she was."

Tabby grinned, "So who was Gabrielle's first?"

"First date? First girlfriend? First what?"

She grinned, "All of the above."

Leo smiled, "I believe if I remember right her first date was when she was eight, she 'went' with her sister Lenora to a charity event some friends of the family were holding. She went as a vampire and Lenora went as a cat girl. They had a leash for Lenora and everything. If you're asking about her first girlfriend that's probably Sylvie."

"Cat girl? I'll have to meet her some time. What was Sylvie like?"

"She's an artist, they met the night we went to the charity ball."

"So what would she think of Gabrielle having a harem?"

"Probably you'd better not hog the covers."

Tabby chuckled, "So what about her first time?"

"I don't know, that's one of those grey areas."

Tabby propped herself up on her elbows, "Sorry I shouldn't have asked."

"Nah it's grey cause I don't have a clue. I know my middle sisters have slept together since we were little. As for actual messing around… hell if I know. I don't find them attractive and they don't me, which is how we like it. So have you and Sarah ever messed around?"

Tabby chuckled, "Nah, I've watched her and Tiffany though, just don't tell them. I was sort of invisible and spying at the time."

"So what did you think?"

"I think the cuddling at the end would have been fun, maybe even the kissing."

"So have you ever kissed Tiffany?"

Tabby grinned, "Yeah, she sometimes pets my tail too."

"I'm guessing that feels good?"

Tabby grinned, "If you do it right, it's better than having your ears scratched, though more personal."

"Anything else she does for you?"

Tabby blushed, "So what do you think of Laura?"

"Lots of fun, if a bit crazy with the training. She's the first girl I ever…"

Tabby blinked, "oh."

"Yeah, so don't have much to compare it to but it was fun. So now that we've both embarrassed ourselves can we maybe get back to working on the magic?"

Tabby grinned, "Sure toss me one of the books and I'll help."

"How much magical theory do you have?"

"Lots actually, as I've said I'm a magical cat girl."

"Well in that case you can have Newts to Chickens to frogs and back again."

Leo tossed the book at the couch. "So maybe after you look through that you can tell me what's different and a bit about how evolutions work."

"Sure it will give me a break from my training with the crazy cheerleader." Tabby grinned as she scooped it up and started reading.

Leo closed his books with a groan. He wasn't exactly thrilled that he only had a few pages of handwritten notes to show for his many hours of studying. Still some notes were better than no notes, even if half of them were written by Tabby which was problematic because he didn't really understand what she was talking about half the time. It probably had something to do with her magic being innate rather than learned not to mention it was a different world with different rules. Maybe Gabrielle would have a better shot at understanding what she was talking about. He figured he would just have to swallow his pride and ask her for help unless he wanted to spend weeks or months painfully researching the problem. He rubbed his eyes and realized with a jolt that he was the only one left in the tent. He vaguely recalled Tabby saying that she was going to go to work learning some of the other girls' abilities again. He grumbled to himself as he walked outside.

He glanced around the yard where the girls were practicing. They'd been at it for hours today and still had a few hours to go before it was too dark to trust that they wouldn't get attacked. He felt a bit annoyed that there really wasn't any way that he could come close to competing against any of the girls physically, with the possible exception of Tiffany. He was just glad that the sunshine made it warm enough to be outside otherwise his mood would have gotten even worse. He shivered and amended his thoughts, well almost warm enough. "So let's see painful injuries sparing with Laura or some sword practice by myself to stay warm." He glanced at where she was furiously practicing her dance moves with the weasel girl. "Sword practice it is." His face twitched with a slight smile as he slipped his wand out of his sleeve and pointed it at a broken branch hanging from an old ash tree near the edge of the clearing. "Accio." He felt a touch of hesitation from the branch as the magic finished tearing it from the rest of the tree before it floated over to land in his other hand. He waved his wand over the branch, his smile increased as the branch slowly changed into a nicely carved wooden practice sword. "At least I can still do that." He slipped his wand back into his sleeve before starting on some of the sword katas he knew. 'Might as well get some practice in, especially if I'm going to be teaching the girls.'

Leo was relieved when a smiling Gabrielle and Sarah finally stepped inside the tent. "I'm guessing your mission was a success?"

"Yeah, more or less." Gabrielle grinned.

"Why do I get nervous when you say things like that?"

"Because you know me? Where's the girls?"

"Tiffany, Tabby and Laura are in Tabby's room jabbering about stuff. I sent them in there an hour or two ago because I couldn't concentrate, I was trying to get some work done on my research into Tiffany's concerns about her upcoming form change, the rest are in their pokeballs."

"How's the research coming?"

"I'm sure that if I could understand her ideas Tabby would have been a great help, but her ideas don't make a lot of sense to me. The notes from the books she looked over aren't much help either, but most likely because it's a lot different use than what the author's had in mind for the spells. It could also be that she just didn't understand the books enough to know what to look for but I find that unlikely. I hope you had better luck than I did?"

"Sort of, we found crap-tons of supplies, including a lot of T2's and stat drugs for the girls. We also picked up a few pokegirls as well."

"And the downside?"

"We picked up at least two troublesome pokegirls."

"What do you mean at least two?"

"Well I haven't had the chance to let the fox type out of her ball. So maybe three troublesome pokegirls."

"Is this going to become a habit?" He smiled.

"Probably, now for the slightly unethical part."

"What did you do this time and should I be expecting visitors to show up?"

Gabrielle rolled her eyes, "Nothing so horrible as that. Besides I said unethical not illegal. Some people sort of challenged me to a couple of duels and I twisted the rules a touch and said I'd fight them if it was a grand melee with a five second window at the start where we couldn't use pokegirls."

"So in other words you neglected to tell them you could use magic and knocked them out before they could grab their pokeballs?"

"Basically yeah, but hey it's fair, for all I knew they could have had magic."

"Yeah cause you wouldn't have noticed it…"

"Actually I'm not sure I would have if they were trying to hide it. There was a really creepy woman at a very creepy store today. If I didn't know better, I would swear she had magic. I couldn't feel anything but there was so much magic in the shop it was seriously interfering with my senses. She wasn't a fan of pokegirl rights…"

"Like how not a fan?"

"Like enough to make Death Eaters twitch and go running for an auror to confess to. I bought a pokegirl off her just to keep her from being eaten. I left her at the therapist. I'm hoping that after a few days she'll be sane enough to deal with."

"Do I even want to know what type?"

Gabrielle walked over and flopped down on the couch, "Dark elf, might even be cute once she's put back together completely."

"What do you mean put back together?"

"She got parts eaten off her and bits cut away, so yeah healed and such. Hell if I know how long it's going to take before she's semi functional."

Leo's face turned a bit green, "That's horrible."

"Yeah, obviously there are some dark sides to this world. Anyways the other pokegirl I acquired is a neo-iczel that we are going to use to train the girls for two weeks before sending her back to her master." She grinned viciously.

Leo frowned as he pulled out his dex and took a few seconds to flip to the entry. "Basically a magic fighting type of pokegirl that is super strong, can fly and toss bolts of energy as well as use an energy blade, why are you so happy about letting such a powerful pokegirl slip though your fingers?"

"Mostly because she was a right bitch, but I got her to agree to give me her first litter of children as payment for her freedom. I even got an agreement with her old owner so that she would take care of her during pregnancy if it meant that she got her back as well as a pick of the litter. Best part is the agreement with the Neo was done with a magical contract."

"I'm guessing you forgot to use a magical contract with the owner?"

"Sort of hard to send those over the net."

"You're horrible."

She stuck her tongue out at Leo for a second, "Yeah I know, I figured Illyria and Raisa Kent could raise them. They're the only people that are stronger than the children will be as adults."

"You really are building an army aren't you?" Leo looked at his sister with concern as the conversation turned serious.

Gabrielle's eyes flashed with purple fire for a second, "Why not? Who's going to stop me? You?"

Sarah blinked nervously before sitting down out of the way of the glares.

He quickly shook his head, "No, but there are rules for a reason Gabby."

She waved her arms, gesturing wildly as her voice rose, "The same rules that allow the purebloods to stay in power and harass the muggleborns. The same perfect rules that only allow the muggleborn to tell their immediate family and force them to lie to the rest of their family for the rest of their life. Yeah 'cause those work so damn well. That lovely rule where slayers aren't supposed to kill humans. Because humans can't be truly evil… yeah we've seen how well that works. I'm done playing, I'm not going to play by the rules the stupid purebloods set. They lie, cheat, steal and do worse then use money to buy their way out of a one way trip to Azkaban. Give me one reason I shouldn't build an army?"

"Because it's dangerous? Hell I don't know. There are always going to be dark wizards, what makes this group so horrible."

"You know the answer to that." She slammed her fist onto the end table hard enough to cause it to shudder, "They killed grandma and grandpa and Uncle Sirius. They aren't going to stop trying to kill our dad unless they all die or we leave. And if we leave they will kill hundreds or thousands of people trying to find dad. So they are going to have to die." She glared at him, "Which would you rather have an army of well trained pokegirl magic users that believe in finishing a battle at your back or a bunch of worthless wizards that can't even fucking decide if torturing muggles is worth a life sentence let alone death."

"I'm not going to answer that."

"Why not?"

Leo glared at his sister, "Because you know the answer okay? What do you want me to say? That I don't know they are evil or untouchable under the law? Hell I'm not going to say that and you know it. We live in a family of heroes Gabby, champions. I just don't want you to cross the line."

"Which line?"

"The one in the sand that says you're evil. Because honestly I don't want the tension at family gatherings."

"It's not like I'm dreaming of controlling the world here Leo. It's way too much paperwork."

He felt some of the tension drain out of himself as he chuckled, "I just don't want you to get hurt."

She nodded, "I know but either way I'm going to get hurt, that's what happens in war. The only thing we can do is train our people as best we can and cheat as much as we can."

"You know I'm with you right?"

She smiled, "Until the bitter end. Now pass over your notes and I'll get started fixing this mess." She turned her smile to Sarah, "I'm sorry I lost it. Would you take Helen and introduce her to the rest of the girls?" She pulled Helen's pokeball off her belt and handed it to Sarah.

"Sure." Sarah took the ball and quickly headed into the other room.

Leo waited until Sarah was in the other room, "So any ideas about how exactly you're going to grant Tiffany's wish for a more human shape for her evolution?"

"Yeah, basically I'm going to study an e-metal I picked up in that creepy lady's shop as well as the mana crystal and fire stone I picked up. I'm hoping that gives me something useful. If not then I'll see if I can learn anything when you evolve your Kitsune. Hopefully that will give me some useful information." Gabrielle reached to her belt and grabbed the kitsune. "You might want to say hello." She tossed the pokeball to Leo.

Leo caught the ball easily, "I should probably get to know the kitsune before I go check on the girls."

She chuckled, "Such a martyr."

He grinned as he walked into his room. He flicked the release switch on the pokeball and watched as the standard red beam dumped a white fox girl animorph on his bed. She was cute, her white held just a touch of red in places. The fox like snout and two foot long bushy white tail were rather adorable. "Do you have a name?"

"Foxy, at least that's what my last owner called me before she lost me. You aren't the one that won me though."

"No, my sister won you from the person that most likely took you from your previous owner. Is that going to be a problem?"

Foxy shrugged, "Not really we never did manage to bond though she was really nice to me."

"So what's your story?"

"Not much to tell, I grew up in London, went to school until about a year ago when I underwent threshold. After that my parents sold me to a friend of mine from school. It was a bit odd being owned by one of your best friends. It was alright for a while but she lost interest in me after she realized that we weren't bonding like she had hoped. Plus I didn't get along with her growltit. Something about the bitch not having a viable sense of humor. Hell come to think about it my friend didn't have much of a sense of humor either. So do I get to prank people?"

Leo smiled, "Sure but just fair warning if you prank them they will prank you back. Please try not to damage anyone's property as those types of pranks aren't funny. Also how old are you?"

Foxy smiled, "Almost sixteen, not to be blunt but you're really cute and I've been stuck in my ball for a while so do you think we could cut to the sex before I lose my marbles and jump you?"

Leo smiled, "At least your honest."

She nodded, "Always, sort of a code of ethics."

Leo grinned before removing his shirt.

Tabby was lounging on the pillow that she had tossed on her desk. There wasn't much spare room to spread out now that there were five people packed into her room. She didn't really mind resting on the desk as it gave her a bird's eye view of the girls sitting on the bed. She licked her lips to clean them of the fresh milk. She tilted the bottle of milk in salute toward Helen, she was very glad that Helen was staying with them. "Delicious, now if I only had some fresh fish I would be in kitty heaven."

Sarah chuckled as Helen blushed, "You know you're going to have to get used to all of us wanting to drink you dry."

"I know but she doesn't have to look like she enjoys it so much."

Tiffany snickered, "Of course she does, she's a cat. It's in her nature same as it's in Laura's nature to not stay still." She gestured to where Laura was sprawled on the bed with her feet hanging over the edge. She was tapping her toes absently on the floor. "It's reflexive really."

Laura sighed, "I'm bored, I can't train in the dark because Leo is afraid of feral packs."

Sarah nodded, "Well I've no desire to get eaten by ferals. And after that first time of getting attacked by bugs… I'm not going back out at night unless I have to."

Tiffany grinned, "Well there is something sort of training like we could do."

Laura frowned, 'What's that?"

Tiffany smiled, "Well I can hear Leo in the other room as I'm sure Tabby can, don't know about her but it's making me very horny. I'm thinking we should practice some sex battling. Tabby can ref."

Sarah smirked as she pulled Tiffany into her arms, "Well it is training…"

Tabby raised her half gallon bottle of milk and took another sip as the group on the bed descended into an orgy. If anyone would have been paying attention they would have heard her contented purring.

Tabby was too busy crying to care what she looked like the next afternoon nor who saw her curled up on her freshly cleaned sheets naked as the day she was born. She wanted nothing so much as to curl up and vomit out her insides, hell she would have tried again if she thought it would help. Sadly the first time all it had accomplished was making a nasty mess out of her clothes and soaking the bed. It wasn't an experience that she wanted to repeat. At least Gabrielle had used magic to clean up the mess. She just wished that Gabrielle could use magic to help with her headache from hell, as it wasn't going away and wasn't allowing her to get back to sleep. She had downed five aspirin for the pain but it had barely made a dent. She'd even tried to get back to sleep after waking up the first time but the minute she had closed her eyes the world had started spinning all crazy like which was almost worse than the pain as it just made everything seem worse. The day had started out fine, at least until they had started using the T2s. Everything had been going fine until she had gotten sloppy and failed to check the label on the last T2 laid out for her. The other girls had used it without a problem so she had thought nothing of putting it in the visor and settling in. The headache had started off as a sharp pain and had gotten worse as she continued with the T2. She'd braved it out not wanting to complain, she wished now that she hadn't. She had started to shiver and shake so much that the girls had hustled her to bed. She'd even managed to snag a touch of sleep before her dreams had gotten all twisted and evil and she'd woken screaming in pain from her headache. Which had lead to the vomiting which had lead to the smell which lead to dry heaving which lead to a different type of pain. All in all this was one of the worst days of her life, all because of a damn T2. Apparently the warning labels about using them if you had a weakness to that element weren't to be ignored. How the hell was she supposed to know that a poison defense tech was actually poison based? She didn't even have the energy to do more than weakly look up at Gabrielle as she felt her cool hand run down her back.

Gabrielle used her other hand to press the cold washrag against Tabby's fevered forehead, "I called the doctor, he said to call again in the morning if your symptoms continue. I'm sorry, I didn't know you would have this reaction. I should have gotten Sarah to check everything over."

Tabby sniffled, "It's okay, I didn't know either. Can, can you hold me?"

Gabrielle carefully pulled Tabby into a hug. "I'm sorry, wish I could put you to sleep but the doctor said we had to let the technique settle otherwise there could be long term damage."

"Anyone else having difficulties?"

"No but after what happened to you we double checked each of the T2's to make sure there weren't any more crossed elements."

Tabby winced, "Maybe if I just lay here in pain?"

Gabrielle's smile wasn't in it as she lied, "It will be better soon."

Tabby didn't even have the heart to call her on the lie.

Several hours later Leo tabbed Gabrielle on the shoulder and whispered, "How is she?"

Gabrielle tossed back a mental reply with telepathy, 'She finally drifted off to sleep a few minutes ago. I'm hoping she sleeps through the night.'

'What went wrong?'

'Sarah was actually the one to figure it out, mistoffeles, which is what Tabby is, are weak against poison. The anti-poison technique that the T2 teaches is actually a poison tech, so it caused a nasty reaction. I'm suspecting that anytime they use a T2 to learn something they're normally weak against it's going to cause them problems.'

Leo sighed, 'That's not good at all.'

"Just means we have to be more careful.'

'Sucks not knowing all of the rules doesn't it?'

'Very much, how's the girl's training going?'

'I made them all wooden practice swords and they're currently beating each other silly with their leaf blade tech. I'm thinking, if you don't mind, of continuing Helen's past training with guns.'

'What?'

'She was a farmhand, she says she got pretty good scaring off varmints.'

'I guess we could always let her use the elemental pistols and get another one for Lexie to rip apart.'

'That's the spirit.'

'So you never did tell me how your sex with the kitsune went?'

Leo blushed, 'Fine, though I think I might need more practice with my hands… cause there is no way I'm… okay new topic.'

Gabrielle chuckled, 'My brother the finger fucker. Don't worry your secret is safe with me.'

"You're impossible." He tried to block his sister from his head as much as possible. "On that disgusting note I'm off to continue the practice."

Gabrielle smiled, "How did the others respond to their tab?"

Leo smiled, "Everything went well actually. I'll tell you about it later."

Gabrielle nodded, "I think I might just curl up and hold her."


	26. Training pains and new experiences

Gabrielle glanced around the field they were using for their make shift practices. It had been a very long week filled with a staggering number of injuries, everything from feral attacks to seared flesh from thunder attacks that weren't dodged in time to a couple broken fingernails. Sad part was that even though the girls were bioengineered bio-machines of death they were still girly enough to complain about broken nails. She just couldn't figure it out. Her only explanation was that when her soul was being created the line was so long on some of the girly parts that she skipped out and got in the line for combat skills instead.

Leo glanced over at his sister, "So, knut for your thoughts?"

"Well Tabby seems to be doing better. Only a slight headache yesterday and none today. She didn't fall over in pain or anything when she used the poison technique either so that's a hopeful sign. If Abby is typical of what happens, I really don't want to use any opposed type techs again though."

"Yeah not so much. At least there is some good news. The supplies will probably hold up for another week at least. I've started to bottle some of Helen's healing milk."

"You know I'm starting to think Sukebe was even more twisted than Lexie. The idea of breast milk being a healing potion is just creepy."

"Yeah but it's cheap. Plus there is only so many times a day that Sarah can use her cards to heal people."

Gabrielle stretched her arms as she yawned. "I'm just happy that the girls are enjoying training their techniques as much as they are. Who would have guessed that the way to a girl's heart would be to make sure she could defend herself. I figured the week long training binge would have caused them all to snap already."

Leo chuckled, "There were a couple of close calls, the couple of hours of hunting at the end of the day can only help with the stress so much. On the plus side apparently getting blasted by two thunder attacks at once is enough to drop a Neo-Iczel to the dirt for a nap. Which was good because it kept Helen from shooting her in the back of the head with an elemental pistol. So you were probably pretty close to correct about them not being able to stand her for more than two weeks."

"As long as she teaches them what she is supposed to, I don't really care what their opinions of her are when she leaves. So what do you think about a bit of a break this afternoon for a fund raising training exercise."

"More feral hunting?"

"Well it does seem like the way to make cash around these parts. Besides I want to impress upon people the need to be sneaky. Nothing good comes of standing in front of a dangerous monster and saying here I am."

"So what do you have in mind?"

"I want to see just how good we can get at capturing ferals. They are worth a nice amount of credits and I want to buy some more T2s the next time I'm in town but they are sort of expensive so I figure we might as well make enough credits that we can afford to snatch up anything we can find. Plus, I want to get them used to the idea of taking out dark wizards for when we start hunting death eaters."

He chuckled. "Sounds good to me, besides they could use a break from Gloria."

"I'm just glad I didn't give Helen any of the elemental shells. They're too expensive wasting on shooting Gloria."

He glanced up in exasperation, "Honestly, I think Helen is a little gun happy."

"She's just clinging to something helpful from her old life."

"I guess I can understand that."

Tabby scrunched her face up in concentration. She knew that typically speaking a party their size wouldn't normally have much luck catching ferals as they would either drive the solitary ones off or attract a pack large enough to eat them all. It was her job to disguise the group with her illusion magic. She just wished that Laura wasn't making it so hard by bouncing on the balls of her feet in impatience. She was seriously going to have to talk to Leo about getting an alpha for his pack so she could just talk to them and they could straighten it out. Maybe she would just talk to Tiffany about it. They were using a spot not too far from a stream where there was a nice clearing. They had placed the remains of a slaughtered kattle in the middle of the clearing to draw out a number of ferals, while hiding under an illusion of blackberry bushes. She was just hoping that the disguise would work well enough.

Laura thought she was being fairly patient considering they had been here for ten minutes and hadn't seen any ferals yet. At least this got her away from the Neo bitch. She was counting down the hours until she was gone. She hadn't been the least bit thrilled when Gabrielle had said that the Neo was staying until everyone learned what they could from her attack wise. If she hadn't thought fear was a good motivator before she was sure it was now. Everyone had worked that much harder at learning, just so the arrogant whore could leave early.

Gabrielle couldn't help smile as she watched the feral step into the clearing. It looked like a strange cross between a crocodile and a girl. It was cautiously approaching the meat laying on the ground. She could tell that the girl was on the lean side though not starved. She pulled her pokedex off her belt and scanned the creature. She was still a little annoyed that it had taken her a few minutes to find a volume option on the scanner and turn the sound off. As far as she was concerned whomever had made this version of the dex should be shot. Having the dex actually beep when it finished scanning was a brain dead idea if you wanted to be sneaky. She smiled as she read the creature's elemental weaknesses. She reached out with her mind toward Sarah, "Toss a thunder bolt at the titodile they're weak against electric attacks, we'll see how effective it is."

Sarah nodded, it didn't feel very sporting to blast the girl from concealment but she had to admit as the bolt of thunder stuck the girl and knocked her unconscious that it was effective.

Gabrielle quickly tossed a pokeball at the poor steaming girl hoping that she was still alive. Her breath caught for a second as she watched the ball sit there for a second before sucking the girl inside with a red flash. It only spent a second twitching before it stopped with a beep. She used a trickle of magic to pull the ball through the air. She grinned as she snatched it out of the air. "So what did we learn today?"

Sarah frowned at the pokeball, "That apparently high powered techniques you learn from T2's are useful but that they take practice to get the full effect out of them."

Gabrielle glanced at Helen then Tabby, "Anybody else?"

Tabby curled her tail around Gabrielle's leg, "Yeah, she was too tall to be feral born."

"This means that we can't just sell her to a ranch without at least talking with her. I wish I had a sanity spell.

Leo chuckled, "Nah, then there would be no excuse for you."

"Laugh it up, do you want to finger fuck her or should I?"

He sobered quickly, "I'd rather not."

"Coin toss?"

"Only if you close your eyes and turn away because otherwise I can't be sure you'll not cheat."

"Fine just flip the coin and let it hit the dirt."

Leo chuckled as Gabrielle turned and looked the other direction. He pulled an old silver dollar that his 'Uncle' Xander had given him a few years back out of his pocket. "Heads I help her, tails you do." He flipped the coin in the air and watched as it flipped through the air.

Gabrielle wasn't sure if she should be relieved or disappointed that the coin was showing heads, "I'll cast the silence spell, Tabby can you make an illusion please. I really don't need to see that." She tossed the pokeball to Leo.

Tabby nodded, "Will do boss."

Leo flopped himself on the shore, even warming charms only did so much to cut the chill from the cold river water. It had taken a while for the crocodile girl to calm down once she started getting her mind back. She had said her name was Tina. She had been rather mortified that she had gone feral in the first place. The only good thing was that she had gone feral once already years ago so she wasn't complaining about her appearance changing. She had lead him and his harem to her stash of loot which consisted of the bones of her victims as well as several worn pokeballs and pokedexes, two of which even still worked. She had been quiet ever since finding the bones of her master and about half the bones of his chicken little, the rest looked to have been eaten by something with sharp teeth a while ago. Other than the pokeballs and three pokedexes there hadn't been much worth taking, just the collar around Betsy the chickenlittle's neck that she took as a keepsake. He shivered as he worked up the energy to cast a few drying charms on his clothes.

Gabrielle frowned as Leo and his girls came back into view followed meekly by the crocodile girl. "Took you a while, what happened?"

"It was a bit further upstream than she remembered. Wasn't much to find sadly but we did recover a couple of pokedexes and a few pokeballs. Sadly we also found the remains of Tina's trainer. I figure we can drop her off with your buddy in London that deals with placing girls with trainers."

Gabrielle nodded, "It would be a good opportunity to pick up our dark elf as well."

Leo grinned, "That's what I figured."

Tina glanced around nervously, "Can I have the rest of the meat? I'm a little hungry."

Gabrielle smiled, "Sure have at it."

He frowned as the titodile messed devoured the meat, "Any luck while we were gone?"

She shrugged, "A few more weasel types but nothing really worthwhile. I think we are going to have to go deeper into the forest to get anything more impressive."

"Do you want to press on or wait until the morning?"

Gabrielle used her hand to shade her eyes before looking up at the tree cover. "It will be dark soon enough at least in the forest. I don't really care to meet a bunch of bugs at night so why don't we just take the pokegirls we've caught this week and sell them."

He nodded, "We can always do more gathering later."

Tiffany smiled as she warmed her hands by the fire. She was just happy to be back at camp rather than out hunting ferals. If it wasn't so damn cold then it wouldn't be so bad but even with her cold weather clothes buttoned all the way up she still felt like she was still freezing. The weather had turned nasty over the last week, the large piles of snow showing that yes the winter was finally here with a vengeance. She was only out here because someone had to be and she was avoiding dealing with the idea that in a few minutes she wouldn't be a bunnygirl anymore. Oh she would be a bunny girl of some type just not the normal everyday type she was now. She had talked the plan over with Leo as well as Gabrielle. It would be an upgrade in just about every way except after the transformation she was fairly sure she would have to duck when going through doors. That was less important to her than actually being useful to Leo, so she was willing to get used to it. No what was really bothering her was way they had gotten rid of the titodile. They had sold her once they hit London, she was having a hard time coming to terms with that. Of course they hoped she ended up with a nice tamer but they still got rid of her. On the one hand it was expected behavior on the part of a tamer, on the other hand she wasn't used to Leo being so mercantile. She really needed to talk to him about his views she just hoped it wouldn't get her sold. She sighed as she noticed him walk outside as if some dark god was forcing her hand. His black wizard robes were a stark contrast to the blindingly white snow on the ground. "Heya Leo."

Leo smiled, "How's it going? Any second thoughts?"

Tiffany shook her head, "Not really just dealing with some troubling thoughts."

"Oh?"

"You sold her?"

"You didn't have a problem with us selling the ferals nor the weasels so I'm going to assume you mean Tina. Am I right?"

"I understand the ferals, they are too much work, the others you got from criminals and it's not like we could ever trust them. Even if they were starting to be okay by the end. But she wasn't like that. She was a nice girl. Hell you're even keeping the dark elf and she isn't all there in the head. Why did you sell her like a slave? Is that what you plan to do to the rest of us?" Tiffany's ears flopped wildly in aggravation.

He sighed, "Would it help if I said she asked me to? And no I'd never sell you or Laura. As for the dark elf she needs to be loved, something that not many" He almost spit the word "tamers" understand. Tina doesn't need love, she just needs sex."

"Huh, what?"

"Tina was rather thankful to be saved from being feral, but she didn't want to stay with us. She just wanted to go home. Gabrielle was listening to her mind when we talked about training. The idea of actual hard training disgusts her. She wouldn't have worked hard at it and I can't trust a girl that gets taken out with one bolt of lightening. She thought it was pointless and just a lucky break on our part that we used lightening on her. Which is stupid as it lists that as their weakness right on the dex. I'm not going to have a stupid pokegirl in what is looking more and more like a combat group. As for the dark elf she needs someone to hug her, love her and give her emotional support. But more than that she has a blazing desire to live, a need to grow strong enough to crush any and all challengers. She never wants to be weak again and Gabrielle promised to show her how to be strong. She will do anything to learn. I can respect that, I can't respect someone that doesn't care enough to try. I'm not going to, it's just not worth it. So yeah I decided that selling her would help pay for all of the girls getting tougher. One hundred thousand is what she was worth to our contact, likely he will turn around and sell her to someone else for a profit, but I don't care. I can't care, there are too many people in the world to care about idiots. Besides that much buys durability increasing meds for five of you girls."

Tiffany shook her head, "You could have just lied you know."

"I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not breaking a promise either and I swore I would never sell you unless you wanted me to. So you're stuck with me for a very long time. So get used to it."

"So you'll still love me even if I'm not cuddly size after the ritual right?"

Leo smiled, "You'll just have to cuddle me after."

She nodded, "I'm sorry I was freaking out earlier, I guess I'm ready."

"So how many people do you want to see your ritual."

"Basically anyone that's staying."

Kyara rolled her new name around a few times in her head trying to get used to it. She thought her new name which Leo had just given her was way better than the old name Foxy, which was only marginally more original than being called hey Kitsune. She glanced over the strange group she found herself a part of. She could mostly understand the pokekit mistoffeles as well as the clowmystic, they were if not typical for their breeds at least within the normal range, same with Laura as an amazonlee. Even Helen the milktit wasn't too far from the normal if you ignored her gun fetish. While normally an intelligent bunnygirl would be considered a medical miracle even she was rather easily explained compared to the dark elf sitting with Gabrielle. Even after a week of trying to get to know her she still wasn't sure what to make of the dark elf. Typically they were darker skinned for one, heck this one had light blue skin and short purple hair. She didn't even look as intimidating as most dark elves normally did though considering what she was wearing that was hardly surprising. She was wearing loose fitting black silk pajamas along with fluffy red bunny slippers. How could you be scared of someone wearing red bunny slippers? She hadn't been told that much about her other than that she had recently suffered some trauma and that she was off the prank list. She thought it was a bit silly but as she was still new she was willing to let it slide, after all if the fact that they had a magical tent that was as large as most people's apartments was anything to go on they seemed like an interesting group.

Morrigan wasn't sure why the white furred fox girl was looking at her strangely again but as she had been looking at her strangely for the past week without doing anything she wasn't going to press the issue. It still felt like a bit of a dream, first getting rescued then finding out that someone you had never even met cared enough about you to put you in therapy. Not that she had expected it to help, but she guessed that when your therapist could reach in with mental powers and dull the memories and pain it was more useful than the human quacks she had heard about. She tried to push that thought to the side as she didn't want to slip down that downward spiral. She tried to concentrate on happier thoughts.

Tiffany shivered as the paint brush trailed along her skin. She couldn't help but feel loved as she glanced around at her new family watching the start of the ritual with looks of encouragement on their face. She concentrated on remaining still even though the brush tickled as it flowed along her skin. Even though she hadn't known most of them that long they were still a part of her family, they might not be the same as the few friendly lab techs from when she was a child or some of the witches on the ranch but they were family. She was just happy they had chosen to support her.

Gabrielle smiled as she finished painting the last of the runes on Tiffany. The runes covered most of her body from head to the tips of her toes. It had taken a while to get everything just right. The reason she had chosen the ink designs was they formed half the spell by themselves. The rest of the spell was all a matter of focusing the energy to do what she wanted in the split second the mana stone was used. She hoped everything worked like it was supposed to. "Leo the stone please."

He gently placed the stone on Tiffany's stomach.

Time seemed to slow down for Gabrielle as the mana stone flashed with light. She could feel the magic flow from the stone into the runic symbols inked all along Tiffany's body. The symbols burned with arcane fire to her eyes as they caused a her body to morph in slow motion before her gaze. The change in height was probably the most dramatic difference though her hair turning silver was striking. She staggered slightly as the world lurched back to full speed. She shook her head for a second to clear it. She glanced down at Tiffany's large human looking feet. "Hey at least a couple parts of the ritual worked. You have human feet and no fur or muzzle. So how do you feel?"

Tiffany wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel after getting nuked with large amounts of magical energy. She could barely make out Gabrielle's echoing voice for the sheer volume was killing her ears. Her senses were in complete overdrive as she frantically tried to find something normal to focus on. She could suddenly smell the mint from the kitchen. Such a strange thing to focus on but it was one of a hundred things she could now smell. Her nose wrinkled as the smell of the mint was washed away by a series of scents that she weren't like anything she had ever experienced. She could suddenly now that she thought about it actually smell the magic in the room. Everything smelled different, all of the different scents were twisting themselves in her nose along with an almost overwhelming scent of strawberries. With a frown she noticed that the room now had a deep layer of mist clinging to the walls. She glanced around frantically, hell practically every item in the room had a layer of mist covering it. She turned to get a better look at Leo, only to find that he was barely there. He had so much a mist covering him that his face was visible only briefly now and then when the mist would shift. Most of the girls had mist covering them though not anywhere close to the amount Leo had. She could feel a large amount of magic swirling behind her. She quickly turned to look for Gabrielle and Tabby. She gasped as she faced where she thought Gabrielle and Tabby were only to find a mist covered Tabby surrounded by a wall of raging mist. Tendrils of it as large as her arm flowed from the churning mass. She couldn't make sense of anything she was hearing and couldn't seem to drag her gaze from the storm of mist, so she did the only thing she could do at that point, she fainted.

~~Author's notes.

Kattle isn't spelled wrong it's a self reproducing sheep common the pokegirl world. Any other questions please just post them in a review.


	27. Raid the evil base

Sarah was in a good mood as she worked on the lists for who had received what drug. "So according to the list, Tabby has had three durability treatments. She's also had a greater endurance, strength and speed tab as well as the general magic tab for increasing magical potential. In another week she'll get the intelligence boosting one. After that we should probably go back through the cycle again then pick one aspect you want her to focus on."

Gabrielle nodded, "Do you have a suggestion Miss alpha?"

"Maybe max her out on speed and endurance tabs?"

"I guess I can see the logic, though if she gets as jumpy as Laura than I'm going to be annoyed." She grinned.

"Hopefully that doesn't happen."

"So what about everyone else?"

"Well I've gotten three doses of the durability drug and one each of the magic, strength, endurance and speed max tabs same as Tabby. Next week I'll grab the intelligence boosting one. After that I figure I'll just alternate between the physical ones for a while. It should help to keep me from being eaten by a feral."

Gabrielle leaned back on the couch, "Correct me if I'm wrong but Helen got two doses of the durability drug as well as one greater strength and greater speed tab."

"Correct, Morrigan started with the magic and endurance tabs. I figured that would be a good fit for our dark magic type caster. We are slowly starting her on the T2s as well. I'm trying not to overload her like we did with Tabby."

"Probably a good plan. So over all what do you think of the Harem?"

"I don't think we are doing that badly for a bunch of beginners. That being said I wouldn't mind working on capturing some ferals in a slightly more honest way than using my sister's illusion magic as we can't do that in gym battles."

"I know, I know, the badges would give us a certain amount of credit when dealing with other tamers but still it's annoying to not be able to use everything we have in a fight."

Sarah snickered, "Yeah I can understand that."

"So how's Leo's group shaping up?"

"Let's see Tiffany seems to have calmed down in the last week. As you're aware, she's doing well in weapons training. She's still having issues being distracted by things the rest of us can't see or smell but other than that not to bad. As for the durability stuff she has used one so far. The tabs, everything but the magic one. Leo's planning that for next week. Laura's taken one dose of the durability drug and one magic tab and one each of the greater tabs save speed. Last but not least Kyara wolfed done her durability drug as well as her speed tab earlier today, that brings her up to one greater speed, one greater endurance and one greater strength tab. Basically she's getting a good start on being a decent combatant. So all in all not too bad. We should probably get everyone we can more of the durability drug when we can afford it."

Gabrielle muttered, "I just wish it wasn't so expensive."

"Yeah but so worth it. Besides just think of how much longer practices will be now… wait a minute." Sarah frowned.

Gabrielle chuckled, "Well, now that you mention it, that does sound like a great idea."

Sarah shook her head, "Not even the idea of longer training times is going to ruin my day now that we sent the annoying neo on her way. I'm just hoping that her children turn out better than her."

"We can only hope."

"So how do you think Leo's doing out hunting?"

"Probably not to badly as he hasn't screamed for help over the com-link yet."

Leo watched with amusement as he watched Tiffany's ears stand straight up as she rotated her head slightly trying to pick up some sound.

Kyara sniffed the air a few times, "Don't smell anything."

"Hush, something isn't right up ahead." Tiffany tried to ignore Laura's bouncing in place as she focused on what she was hearing. She'd gotten slightly better at filtering out the various scents and smells but some times things still trapped her attention in weird ways. She was sort of annoyed that she was going to have to have another chat with Laura about making noise when she wanted silence. It sounded like some type of fighting and possibly guns to her. "Sounds like some people are in trouble up ahead. Kyara you're with me, Laura guard Leo." Tiffany took off at a run with Kyara not to far behind.

Leo smiled as he watched the naked fox girl take off at a run. "That never stops being a heart warming sight. We should probably make sure they don't get into any trouble.

Laura sighed as Leo took off at a run in the general direction Tiffany disappeared in. She was just glad that he wasn't the type to get pissed when she easily caught up to him. To him the pace was probably close to his top running speed without it being a sprint, to her it was nothing more than a light jog. She knew she could easily leave him in her dust but that wouldn't be good as her job was to guard him. She almost stumbled when the sounds of an explosion reached her ears from the direction Tiffany went.

Leo stumbled out of the woods and onto the path only to come upon the sight of a massacre. A broken wagon was overturned in the middle of the road. Several charred partial body parts were strewed around the ground near the wagon. He twitched as he noticed several of the pieces slowly trying to pull themselves together again. He stifled the urge to vomit as he looked around frantically for his alpha. He was relieved to find her several feet away from the edge of the clearing clutching her ears in pain. Kyara was standing guard as she tried to figure out what was going on. He quickly noticed that there were two men carrying some sort of rifle standing near the wagon laughing. He was just happy that they appeared to be too busy to have noticed his group hiding at the edge of the forest. Next to them stood a strange and rather frightening girl with odd reddish colored skin as well as hooves for feet. The girl's demonic horns only added to the creepy factor as far as Leo was concerned. Her hair was a tangled mess. While that normally wouldn't have been enough, at least in this world, for Leo to assume she was evil the fact that they were standing there laughing while a young female voice was screaming from inside the burning wagon was enough to tip the scales. "Laura give them a mana bolt then start with your thunder attacks." He gestured to Kyara, "Use thunder on the team members."

Kyara nodded, she couldn't be completely sure but he was vaguely sure that he had said use thunder on the two men. Of course with the ringing in her ears from the bombshell girl exploding it was hard to tell. She peeked over the hedge and summoned up the energy for her new thunder attack.

Laura watched slightly amused as her mana bolt slammed into the cardian. The demon pokegirl twisted to glare her way after the bolt slammed into her. Laura was more than a little disappointed that the attack did little more than annoy the girl. She was glad the that girl's counter attack was slowed by the large blast of thunder that slammed into the team group. That was the only thing that saved Laura from being gutted as she frantically tried to dodge a bolt of dark magic.

Kyara was fairly sure that Laura had at least several broken rips and a punctured lung as Laura collapsed like a bag of rotting potatoes. She figured one more attack would finish Laura off for good. She wasn't going to let that happen if she could at all avoid it. She was just glad that the demon girl showed at least some damage from the thunder attack. It was at least enough it was worth trying again. But first she needed a way to get the demon to not focus on her downed alpha. She briefly went over the various new attacks she had from the T2s in her mind before settling on an old one to create a bit of misdirection. She quickly wove a physic illusion of a knight girl in dark armor jumping out of the bushes several yards away and running at the demon. It wasn't the best illusion but it was enough to get the demon girl to turn and target the illusion and fire off one of her dark bolts.

Leo quickly returned Laura to her pokeball then ducked for cover. If her blasts were taking out his pokegirls with one shot he really didn't want to get hit with one. He wished he had telepathy like his sister so he could tell Tiffany what to do.

Tiffany was even more annoyed at the group than she had been after watching her harem sister fall to the girl's blast. She really didn't like her odds but figured there might be a way to win still. She pulled herself to her feet and took off at a run toward the demon girl. She just hated the fact that it was a bit of an all or nothing attack.

The cardian wasn't exactly sure what to think as the large bunnygirl charged her and unleashed a powerful thunder attack. She had just finished dodging most of that blast when she unleashed her drain energy attack. She was more than slightly annoyed as the girl jumped impossibly high to avoid the attack. She summoned another bolt of dark energy ready to drive the blast into the girl when she landed only to be shocked as hell when the girl seemed to hang in the air for a second. Her surprise was short lived though as a cloud of mist erupted from the girls mouth. The cardian had barely enough time to scream "Shit" before her head exploded in agony from the pain as she collapsed.

Tiffany fell out of the sky no longer having the concentration to pull off the brief second of levitation that had allowed her to dodge the girl's attack. She was still working on learning the ability from Morrigan. That brief second of floating time was all she was able to pull off so far but at least it seemed to have done the trick. She was going to have to practice her mist attack more. At least the girl was down for the count.

Leo waved his wand at the wagon and produced a stream of water to help with the fire. "You can come out now." He watched as a teenage girl slowly made her way out of the wreck. She was decently cute, especially with her shoulder length light brown hair slightly messed up from climbing out of the wreckage. Her clothes were, even by normal standards, quite modest. She was wearing grey pants and a wool sweater. She even had a scruffy grey wool hat on her head that completed the cute look. Her eyes were a nice shade of blue. The only thing strange about her was her hands. They looked like they were made of white metal. "Hi, is anyone else trapped." He turned to look at Tiffany, "You okay?"

Tiffany still couldn't hear anything and felt like crap, she shook her head, "Ball me please."

Leo nodded as he recalled Tiffany to her pokeball.

The girl shook her head, "No just me, I hitched a ride with the wagon driver on the way back from a relatives. I took some photos in exchange for the ride." She went silent for a second as she noticed the blood smears that used to be the drivers and guards. "They seemed like such a nice couple, I wonder what is in the lockbox that would get a team to attack."

Leo frowned, "Don't know but after I ball all of their pokegirls I intend to find out. That is if they are still alive. You might want to grab the rest of your stuff."

Kyara grinned and continued tying up the bad people using strips of their own clothing. She had already returned the cardian to her pokeball. She shook her tail, leave it to her master to think about the cute girl over the dangerous team members scattered around. She frowned as she placed the odd looking rifles in a pile a few steps from the bodies. "Hey boss man, the idiots are still breathing though they look a touch singed. I don't suppose you could id the crawling bits?" She gestured toward the strange metal spine and the quivering pieces of flesh slowly inching toward the spine.

Leo frowned as he pulled out his pokedex, "Yeah sure, give me a second." He pointed it at the various bits, "Bombshell the exploding pokegirl." He read the pokedex for a few. He pulled an empty pokeball off his belt as he walked over to the spine. He carefully ran his fingers down the back of the spine. He quickly pulled his hand away as the bits quickly lurched and started reforming the girl. He gave her a second to come back together fully before dropping the pokeball on her.

The camera girl sighed, she really wasn't sure how to get herself out of this mess. At least the guy was rather cute. He seemed nice enough, at least as good as any of the prospects her family had been looking at for her. "Name's Raven."

Leo collected the pokeball then walked over toward Raven he offered out his hand. "Pleased to meet you, I'm Leo."

Raven smiled and grabbed his hand and shook it. "So I don't suppose you need someone to document your adventures do you?"

"Don't know but I could always use another friend."

She smiled, "So is this everyone in your harem?"

"Yeah but my sister has a milktit, a cat girl and a clowmystic, so it's never really boring."

Her eyes lit up, "A clowmystic? You don't say."

"Yeah, she's a very sweet girl, you'd like her."

"Do you think I could meet her?"

Leo shrugged, "Not sure why not. After we figure out what's in the wagon we can figure out if the team members have a secret base." He went over to the small safe and waved his wand over the lock several times before the door slid open. "Oh."

Raven tried to get a look at what was inside the safe. "What did you find?"

"We need to get out of here as soon as we can. Looks like someone was trying to move certain products under the radar. There are a couple of T2s, some data files and a few stones. Hey Kyara anything good off the team members?"

Kyara frowned, "Just some weird rifles and a few boxes that might be power cells."

"Well that's something. We should probably drag the two goons back to camp. I've got a feeling that if they are well enough connected as to know when someone is shipping suspect goods then we should find some interesting items at their base."

Raven frowned, "You have any idea how dangerous that could be?"

"Only sort of, but I'm sure multiple people will tell me before the night is over." Leo scooped the contents of the safe into his belt pouch.

"You know that's stealing right?"

"I prefer to think of it as salvage. Besides there might be something in the T2s that will keep me and my girls alive. However I don't blame you if you want to leave."

Raven shrugged, "I don't exactly have any place else to go. If I go home my folks will send me off with the next tamer that wanders along. Besides, you saved me from the bandits."

Leo nodded, "Alright people we have a bit of a walk ahead of us."

Gabrielle hadn't really been happy about having to stop working on her homemade milktit icecream to go interrogate a couple of team members. Leo had come back and dumped the two humans off with her as he went to introduce Raven around. She would have liked to stay for part of the introduction but sadly she was much better at ripping secrets from people's heads than her brother was. Still on reflection she was rather happy that she had attempted the information retrieval rather than her brother. He might not have noticed the magical traps placed in the team member's minds until it was too late. Even with her skill she had still lost one of the team members to a trap spell that fried his mind. On the upside she had learned the location and basic security details of the team's hideout. It was cleverly protected by a few spells. Though she figured she would have to be careful as there were probably even more defenses that the team member she had taken the knowledge from didn't know about. Downside being that the leader of this particular team was a dangerously unstable magic user, at least according to the team member. But hey at least he had books on magic she could steal. She glanced at the team member laying in a wreck in front of her. After some of the things she had glimpsed in his mind she had very little remorse as she left him tied up in the middle of a feral infested forest. She muttered, "Bloody useless garbage." as she teleported back to camp.

Leo glanced up as Gabrielle walked back into the tent, "So any luck?"

"Well we've got a location to hit, but if we hit it we are going to have to call our vacation in this world over for a while. There is no way to hit it and get away clean other than running where they can't find us, they are too well connected for that."

Leo nodded, "If it helps shut down this team, I'm game. So how do you want to do it?"

Gabrielle grinned, "I think if we work on the layout of the place and do some cross training with various techniques we can pull a raid off."

"You know you're crazy talking about a raid on a team headquarters."

"Blah, It's not like they're one of the large ones. Besides, they were using magic to protect their secrets they most likely think that dumb and dumber died before giving up any of their secrets. We have time to plan this out and do it right. Besides if we spend two months training for this then they will have relaxed their guard."

"What makes you think they aren't just going to leave between now and then?"

"They've been at their current location for a while and didn't really have any plans to leave."

"If you can draw out the layout and come up with a workable plan I'll start the girls on the training."

Gabrielle nodded, "In two months we party."

Neil Stone frowned as he kept watch on the path leading to the old church, same damn boring thing every day. He was rather annoyed that just because the boss liked Roberts more he was stuck on guard duty again. Personally he thought the location of the hideout couldn't be worse. While the old church did give their agents a cover story for being in such an out of the way place, he didn't think it was worth being stuck out in the middle of some flyspeck town. Still the fact that the church had a hidden wine cellar that happened to be large enough to turn into a base was the only reason he didn't consider it a complete waste. If only the boss let them drink more of the wine. He briefly considered releasing his amazonwu for a bit of entertainment but decided against it. The boss's orders were to remain inconspicuous which meant that if anyone was around he was just the church gardener which would have no reason to have a fighting type. Never mind that it could be for defense against ferals, which were a real problem. He caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye before his skull exploded in pain and everything went black.

Sarah grinned as she inspected her staff for blood stains from the unconscious team member. She wanted to reach up and adjust her mask but she knew it was on correctly as she had already adjusted the stupid thing several times. The only thing that made it better was knowing that everyone was wearing them. Tabby's mental voice interrupted her thoughts, 'grab his security card, hide the body and use invis again.' Sarah nodded then vanished as she called on the power of the invisibility technique that Raven had taught the group. It had taken her almost the whole two months to learn the stupid technique but she couldn't argue with it's effectiveness as she worked her way toward the back room.

The security guard at the entrance didn't even have a chance as Sarah appeared a second before she slammed her staff into the guy's throat. He crumpled with a gurgling sound, only to be finished off with a shot to his head. Sarah quickly slipped the security card into the reader. She smiled when the door to the stairs opened. She as quietly as she could, which was damn quietly as she and her sister were both phased out and floating, headed down the stairs.

Gabrielle briefly wished that she could phase like the girls as she carefully snuck down the stairs following a few yards behind Sarah and Tabby with an invisible Morrigan bringing up the rear. She was just glad that she had left Leo and his girls up top to deal with any sort of reinforcements that might show up. As she looked around the converted wine cellar she could see several people milling around checking inventory and supply lists. She knew that it was just a matter of time before one of them headed up the stairs or checked in or something. She was particularly glad that no one had any pokegirls out. Even though they did have a guard up top and a vault door that should have kept them safe she still thought it was a bit lazy. Obviously they felt that the fact that everyone in the room had a pokeballed girl within easy reach sufficient. She tossed her mental voice out to her girls explaining which targets to take out and doing a count down so that everyone dropped at once. Gabrielle grinned as she dropped her invisibility and slammed both fists into the back of the neck of adjacent team members. She watched them crumple with no small amount of amusement. She was just glad that the rest of the girls had hit their targets as well. She glanced around before directing Sarah to check out what was obviously the main manager's office.

Sarah frowned disgustedly as she phased through the door of the office and took in the scene that greeted her. A fat old guy had a leather wearing pokewomen bent over the table. She would have liked nothing more than to bash his head in and be done with it but she didn't really want to play with a high powered domina type. She smiled as she noticed the girl's pokeball was sitting in plain view on the table. She quickly phased in picked the pokeball up and recalled the girl before dropping the pokeball back to the table and swinging her staff as hard as she could at the guy's throat. Gabrielle had drilled into her the fact that most spell casters couldn't cast if they couldn't talk and even if they could the pain of a crushed throat often made it impossible. She quickly bashed the guy's skull open with her staff before she could find out which type he belonged to. She stepped back as he slumped to the floor. She smiled as she sent the mental all clear to Gabrielle. 'Got him, come loot him.'

Gabrielle smiled as she finished scanning everything she could find into one of several pokepacks they had brought for just this purpose. They were giving themselves twenty minutes to loot everything they could then they were going to leave the guys tied up in the office. She figured she could use one of the phones to call the police. After that her plan was to do a bunch of teleporting and flying before heading off some place to rest. After that they planned to spend a day counting their loot. After that they were probably going back home. She grinned as she thought about all of the interesting computer equipment and machines they were grabbing from this place. Basically everything but the kitchen sink.

Leo grinned as Raven asked him if they were criminals for taking all of the Team's stuff. "Well probably but as there really wasn't a way to make sure it got back to everyone they stole it from and the league would just pocket the stuff, I don't feel that bad about it."

Raven nodded, "So now that we pissed off a bunch of homicidal lunatics, are you going to tell us your game plan?"

"Sure I plan on having Tabby teleport us to her old home and exploring the grounds to see if any of the underground part of the lab survived, after that I figure I'll go home."

"You're not going to leave us are you? I've gotten sort of attached to everyone."

"Nah, Gabrielle would kill me. Plus I'm sort of attached to everyone too."

Gabrielle was still amused at some of the larger things that they had found in the warehouse. Some of them had been so large they had had to disassemble them to store them. Still it was worth it, just the technical data they had on certain things would keep Lexie busy for years. She would almost miss this world when she left it. Ah well it wasn't like she wasn't coming back. Besides she had to collect that Neo-Iczel in a year on this world. Plus there were several girls out at Wenaldo's ranch that interested her. Ah the possibilities.


	28. Home again

Willow watched with some concern as Gabrielle and a mess of girls she didn't know staggered out of Rose's portal then collapsed on the ground. "You okay?"

Gabrielle blinked a few times as she tried to ignore the fact that the world was spinning around her. "Not really but I think we'll live, sadly."

Willow nodded, "So do you want to explain to me who the rest of these girls are and where Rose and Leo are?"

"Ow! Omigosh... this totally isn't what it looks like! Okay maybe it is, but they followed me home, honest. Can, can I keep them?"

Willow blinked, "All of them?"

"Well no, some of them are Leo's." Gabrielle blinked as she realized that probably wasn't the best argument to make. The high volume Willow babble wasn't really helping her headache so she did her best to ignore it as she tried to extract herself from the rest of the girls. She finally managed to extract herself from the rest of the girls just as she her mother's voice slowed to a level she could deal with. "What's that?"

Gabrielle looked around for a second before she realized her mother was looking at her bother's fox girl. "That's Leo's kitsune, a type of fox girl, her name's Kyara."

Willow blinked as her babble came to an abrupt stop. "Maybe you had better get to the introductions missy."

Gabrielle sighed, why did she always get left cleaning up the mess. Okay so they were usually her fault but this time it was at least half Leo's fault. "Well you've already been introduced to Kyara so who wants to be next?"

Tabby blinked, she'd heard a lot of stories but meeting Gabrielle's mother for the first time was sort of scary. "Hi, I'm Tabby or Abby if you prefer."

Willow blinked as she took in the girl's tail and cat ears, "What are you?"

"I'm a pokegirl or more specifically I'm a magical cat girl."

Willow nodded, "Okay, I've heard stranger things." Which she had, taken next to a hell goddess and any number of the demons she had fought over the years, a magical cat girl wasn't anything too strange. Willow watched as a large breasted teenage girl stepped forward. The girl was dressed as a cowgirl albeit a very sexy one. She removed her cowboy hat before doing a little bow. It took Willow a second to notice the small though very cute horns sticking out from under the girl's hair. "Oh."

Helen smiled brightly, "I'm Helen, I'm, well I'm sort of a cowgirl."

"They're cute, are they real?"

Helen nodded, "Yeah, so are the breasts incase you're wondering."

Willow pulled her eyes away from the teenager's lovely c or d cup breasts. "Sorry."

Helen was grinning as she shrugged, "It happens, a lot actually."

Gabrielle glared at her mother, "Anyways Sarah is the girl playing with the deck of cards." Sarah smiled and waved. "Morrigan is the blue skinned elf girl." Gabrielle lightly ran her hand along Morrigan's shoulder to help her relax.

Willow nodded, "So what about the rest of the girls?"

Laura grinned, "I'm Laura and the overly large bunny rabbit behind me is Tiffany. We're friends of Leo."

Willow blinked as she noticed just how tall Tiffany was. "She's taller than Lexie."

Gabrielle nodded, "Yeah, I wonder how Lexie will take it."

"Not sure, so how long until Leo and Rose get here?"

"They wanted to finish organizing the stuff for transport."

Willow frowned, "What stuff?"

Gabrielle blinked, "You didn't get the e-mail?"

Willow frowned, "You mean the suspiciously vague one that asked if Dawn and Lexie could help you move some computer equipment and lab tech out of the pocket world Rose made."

"Yeah that one."

"Oh I read it, just no where in it was any mention of bringing a horde of people back with you."

"But mom."

"Nope, no buts, it's straight to quarantine for the lot of you. I'll even make sure Ginny puts the stethoscope in ice water just for you. Not only that but you're so grounded."

"What?"

Willow smiled, "No magic until you get back to school and next time you decide to go on vacation I want a full mission write up."

"That's not fair."

"Oh? Speaking of not fair, Mrs. Potter wants a two page paper from you and your siblings about your experiences and thoughts on the world you visited. Is that going to be a problem?"

Gabrielle sighed, she was just happy she wasn't in worse trouble for not clearing her pokegirls, but sometimes it was better to ask forgiveness than permission. "Fine, let's go girls. Leo can catch up after we get through the scans."

Ginny's smile was slightly amused as she checked over the rest of the children. She had cleared Gabrielle in about five minutes. Nothing out of the ordinary about her blood work or anything else for that matter. Well nothing out of her normal range anyways. The girl's immune system was more than a little scary even if you didn't factor in the girl's subconscious use of magic to increase it's ability to deal with any form of contagion. Ginny was fairly sure Gabrielle could walk through a village filled with the black death and not catch even so much as a sniffle. The rest of the girl's were slightly more problematic in that she needed to take a bunch of samples both physical and mystical for the baseline graphs they required all of their people to have.

Lexie couldn't suppress the look of glee on her face as she looked over the collection of boxes filled with computers and specialized lab equipment. "There is enough stuff in here to keep me busy for years. Hell, I'm going to have to get some research assistants just to sort all of this."

Dawn's smile broke through her mock glare almost immediately, "I think you broke her." She unconsciously ran a hand over the top book in a stack of books dealing with magic. "I can't say I'm sad about having all of these books to look through though. So when did you want to start moving everything back home?"

Leo glanced over at Raven who was busily taking picture after picture of the last of the stuff being loaded into the boxes by the twins. "Well any time you want."

Logan grunted as he moved one of the large boxes down from its place in a precarious stack, "How come I'm here helping again?"

Rose chuckled, "It's called bribery, something to do with a cellar filled with wine and other mostly useless alcoholic drinks."

Logan grunted.

Lexie chuckled as she went back to shifting the boxes for easier transport.

Gabrielle chuckled as Leo flopped down on her couch, "So how did moving everything go?"

"Tiring, I'm just glad we are going back to school soon, that way Lexie can't draft us for help organizing all of the new computer equipment. So where's everyone else?"

Gabrielle nodded, "They're off with Lilypad and the twins seeing the rest of the house."

"That's good, so have you thought about how the girls are going to fit into things here? And were we right to bring them?"

"Well I wasn't going to leave them behind. Besides I'm sure once mom calms down she can find plenty of things for them to do. Hopefully it will keep her mind off us going back to school."

He chuckled, "One can only hope."

Xander couldn't suppress the chuckle that escaped as he listened to his oldest friend explain his girlfriend's reaction to the almost seven foot tall bunny rabbit. "She really fainted?"

"After screaming like a school girl, you would think that a vengeance demon would be made of sturdier stuff."

Xander grinned as he mock coughed, "Frogs."

Willow chuckled, "I guess… still it was sort of funny."

"So what are you going to do about the girls?"

"What's there to do? The girls look happy, as long as they come through the medical scans there isn't much we can do about it other than find a place for them."

Xander nodded, "Well it would be nice to have some additional magical support in a few trouble spots. Besides Lexie has been complaining for a while about needing some help to go through all of her tech and figure out how to start building on it. Perhaps one of the girls has a science bent."

Willow grinned, "You're just happy to have more people sharing the house that aren't slayers."

"I love my slayers but some times they can drive me a little bonkers. It will be nice to have some normal people around."

"Yeah, because a bunch of teenage nudist girls with magical powers is normal. Okay maybe it's normal for here. Anyways I think you would die of boredom if all you had were normal people around."

Xander laughed as he leaned back on the couch, "Well do we get to interview the girls tomorrow?"

Willow nodded, "And assign them jobs as well."

Gabrielle smiled as Tabby came walking back into her bedroom, "So how did it go?"

Tabby grinned, "Better than I expected, I get an allowance and get to help out in the library and the computer lab. It's great."

Gabrielle giggled, "See I told you it would work out. So what about the others?

Tabby giggled as she climbed up on the bed and sprawled out on the large thing. "Helen's training with Xander, he just loves the elemental pistols and wanted to know when he could get an elemental shotgun. Willow said as soon as the weapons finished being tested. The second he heard that he drafted Bode to start work on drafting up some type of indestructible double barreled elemental shotgun."

Gabrielle nodded, "Probably wants to have the parts made of heartstone, which would fix the over heating issue. Should be interesting, who's he got doing the crafting for the rounds?"

"He conscripted Morrigan and Sarah to help. It should give them some practice working with their magic, besides if we end up issuing the guns to the field watchers like you want, we are going to have to be able to make the ammo."

"They're sneaking in classes right?"

"Yeah, Hermione was big on the schooling bit, she seemed rather mortified that pokegirls are denied a formal education back home. She wanted to storm the gates and rush back to fix things. I managed to convince her that the problem wasn't going to be fixed overnight. But I think it gives us a better chance of getting the okay if we want to rescue more girls from back home."

Gabrielle twisted on the bed so she could get a better look at Abby's face. "So how's Morrigan dealing with everything?"

"I think she's relieved to be away from our world, too many bad memories. This place gives us a chance to start fresh, even if we are part of a demon hunting organization. You know that's still a strange concept for me to deal with. Actual demons not just infernal pokegirls."

Gabrielle smiled, "Well I grew up with it, so I'm not sure what I would do if I didn't know about magic and demons."

Abby reached her tail around to brush against Gabrielle's toes.

Gabrielle shifted her toes slightly, "Hey, so what's Laura doing for chores?"

"According to her she's got the best job in the world, fight training. Go figure, not my idea of fun everyday. She's practicing against some of the newer slayer's Giles has been sending over. It's a nice change to see her fight something stronger than her, even if most of the slayers aren't faster than her. Though some of them are."

"You're just enjoying watching her lose now and then."

"Yes, yes I am."

"So what did Tiffany get stuck with?"

"Sorting out the computers and helping Lexie work everything into a complete whole. She's also trying to learn as much computer programming as she can. She's also as busy as she can be working on learning more science as well as everything she can about Lexie's advanced techs while cramming in magic lessons. Hell, everyone is cramming in as many magic lessons with the various teachers as they can. It's fascinating learning new things. I just hope that I can learn to use magical cards like my sister one of these days."

Gabrielle chuckled, "Just the enthusiasm in your voice is enough to make me want to stay here and skip out on going back to Hogwarts but I have to stay at least until the end of the year."

Tabby sighed, "I still can't believe you and Leo are going back to that school. You said it was a waste of time."

"No just some of the classes, the place still has a great number of books, besides it has access to the forbidden forest. It's a very pretty place."

"Very dangerous you mean."

"Details."

"We're going to miss you horribly, what happens if we go feral while you're gone?"

Gabrielle rolled her eyes, "Seriously, you don't have that problem yet. The other girls can keep each other from going feral just fine. Besides, Rose will be around to teleport us back for visits often, and I plan to abuse the fact that I have four very cute girls waiting for me here that enjoy licking me till I melt and explode. Speaking of which, we have an hour before dinner how would you like to spend it."

Tabby grinned as she rolled over so that her behind was within easy reach of Gabrielle, "Well I haven't been spanked in a while."

Gabrielle chuckled as she gently pushed Abby's shirt up leaving her bare ass exposed, "You are a very weird girl, you know that right? You wear a shirt and a top hat but no undies?"

Abby nodded, "I like the shirt and undies bunch around my tail. Just remember lighter is better."

Gabrielle chuckled as she watched Abby squirm as she started to lightly spank Abby's pale behind. "You know we are going to have to get you out in the sun one of these days."

"Maybe when it gets warmer."

"Oh I don't know a little ice to go on your tush, might be just the thing."

"Don't you dare."

Gabrielle grinned as she reached up and gently ran a finger over Abby's ear, as she brought her other hand down on Abby's rear. "Well then perhaps it would be best to stay still rather then squirming so much."

Raven frowned as she looked over a section of the computer lab that was piled high with boxes. "So you're saying you want me to clear the mess away and set up an audiovisual center?"

Lexie gestured around the computer lab, "Gabrielle mentioned that you have a number of home videos from her vacation, I thought you might want to set up a place to edit them."

"That would be cool, I don't suppose you could do me a huge favor one of these days and take me around to camera stores do you?"

"Oh?"

"Yeah, one of my powers is that I can conjure any camera I've ever held."

Lexie chuckled, "So the more cameras you hold the more options you have?"

"Exactly."

"Yeah cause going to London with a cute girl is such a huge favor, I think we can work something out. I mean other than the hands you look normal enough. And they will pass as gloves unless someone pulls at them."

"Thanks, makes me feel sorry for Kyara though. She can't really hide what she is short of using mental powers to make people think she looks normal."

Lexie's mouth slowly formed a smile, "So maybe you can tell me about your world as we work."

Raven grinned, "I would love to."

Gabrielle glanced up as a smiling Lenora walked in, "Hey you, didn't really get much chance to chat with you about your adventures, so spill."

Lenora grinned, "Well the magic school was interesting though totally different than Hogwarts."

"Oh?"

"The school was new, so everything had a fresh look, unlike Hogwarts which has that old as time castle look."

"Probably because it is an old castle."

Lenora walked over and flopped down on the bed next to Gabrielle, "Yeah, well it's a nice castle though some times I think we might get more done in a updated setting. Don't tell anyone I said that though. It wasn't just the building though, even the people were different."

"Such as?"

"Well our school unlike the one Rose went to encouraged pokegirls to go. Not only that but everyone wanted to go. It's amazing how much of a difference that makes. Everyone there wanted to learn because they wanted to learn about magic."

"And that's different than Hogwarts how?"

"Well there you're required to go, at the Wolf Institute for Practical and Applied Magic everyone that is there wants to be there. It was so much fun, you should have come."

Gabrielle smiled brightly, "Now you're sounding like Lillian."

"Oh she was in heaven there. I'm a little surprised we could drag her out of there."

"How did Rose get her to leave anyways?"

"Bribed her with half a library full of books and the promise that she could come back later. I'm afraid that she's so busy reading that if I didn't set food next to her she would be a half starved blurry eyed monster when she finally left the library."

Gabrielle chuckled, "So are you looking forward to going back to Hogwarts?"

"Yes and no I guess, I mean I like spending time with people but I'm probably just going to ask McGonagall if we can take the owls at the end of the year. I know we can pass them, and I'm really tired of this lying crap. I refuse to stay at a school that doesn't bother to control the students who like causing trouble. I know everyone deserves an education but teaching Crabby and Goyle magic is a recipe for disaster."

"Well I think after Dad kills Voldemold we're done with this world anyways. Maybe we can steal Trista and leave at the end of the year. I wouldn't mind going and seeing that Wolf school you were talking about. So what other subjects of note did you learn?"

Lenora grinned, "What a girl can't have some secrets?"

"Sure I can, you on the other hand."

Lenora pouted, "Hey, that's not fair."

Gabrielle smirked, "I know."

"Fine, we did some work with summoning."

Gabrielle's voice dropped to a whisper despite the fact that they were the only ones in her room on account of Abby being upstairs taking a shower. "Like demon summoning?"

Lenora shook her head, "No silly, Esper summoning. Sort of like demons but neutral, they were a type of magical pokegirl."

"So you think you can get it to work here?"

"That's the question isn't it? I'm not sure, I plan to go over the spells and techniques with your mother when I get back from school and see what we can work out. I left her a bunch of books on it."

Gabrielle nodded, "Well that's something I guess."

Lenora shook her head, "I'm the one that should be jealous you got four new girl friends that love you."

Gabrielle sighed, "It's not that easy. Sarah and Abby are fine, Helen is more or less fine, but Morrigan has some really deep emotional scaring. I'm sort of worried about leaving her here while I run off to school."

Lenora nodded, "Abby's the cat girl and Morrigan is the elf right?"

"Dark elf but yeah."

"Well tell me about them and the rest, I'm curious."

"Well Abby's wicked smart and cute, she's got a nice sense of humor. She's a little bit kinky which is fun but nothing gross. She's slightly ticklish. She likes to be lightly spanked which is weird but sort of fun."

"What about Morrigan?"

"Well she used to be an elf before she was forcibly evolved into a dark elf. She had some horrible experiences in her past that are best left in the past. Just don't try to start anything sexual with her and never mention cannibalism around her."

"That bad?"

"Worse really, but I'm trying to repress even the little I know."

"Okay so not opening that door if it makes you twitch."

Gabrielle nodded, "Yeah thanks. Remind me one of these days to have Illyria rip the people responsible for her abuse apart limb by limb."

Lenora nodded, "So who is your alpha?"

"Sarah, she's great at organizing things. I should probably talk with her a bit about a schedule for visits. But yeah she used to entertain us with card tricks over the camp fire, while we were roughing it in the wilderness."

"Leo said you had the tent, so by campfire you mean stove, and by roughing it, you mean a three bedroom home. You're horrible."

"Hey, there were still dangerous monsters."

"Feral pokegirls are hardly dangerous beasts compared to some of the things mom and dad have fought over the years. Besides I'm fairly sure you could take most of them in a fight, fair or not."

"Still some of them are pretty powerful, makes me want to step up my monster hunting here so that I can gather more power."

"Gabby, you sure that's completely safe?"

"Not really, but honestly how else am I going to make sure all my girls are safe."

Lenora sighed as she rolled over and looked up at the ceiling. "I still can't believe we are going back to Hogwarts in the morning. It was such a nice vacation."

"Hey I know something that will cheer you up, after dinner I'll introduce you to Helen. You can probably talk her into sampling some of her milk straight from the source."

Lenora blushed slightly, "How do you ask that?"

"Well I suggest asking her in a semi private setting, and she's fairly relaxed about it from what I've seen. Leo likes it."

"I'll see."

Gabrielle chuckled, "Just trying to share the wealth."

"You mean work. I read the report on how often milktits have to be milked."

"Details."

Abby was smiling as she walked down the stairs, fresh out of her shower, she didn't even have her top hat on. "Hey Gabby you're out of soap." She rubbed her chin in thought as she looked between Gabrielle and Lenora, "Okay which one are you?"

Lenora grinned and used a hand to flick her pig tails, "Lenora."

"Ah okay, sorry it's just confusing."

"You should see them when they swap hair styles for fun. It gets really confusing."

Lenora grinned, "How was your shower?"

"Really nice, though my tush is a little sore. I was hoping Gabrielle could put some lotion on it."

Gabrielle had a slightly impish grin on her face as she shrugged, "Yeah sure you were, sorry to disappoint but I have to work on my paper but I'm sure that Lenora would help you out. She told me she was fascinated by your tail."

"Oh really? Well if it's alright with Gabrielle."

Lenora blushed slightly, "Ah." She gulped, "Okay."

Gabrielle handed Lenora a container of lotion before sliding off the bed and walking over to her desk to finish her paper.

Lenora almost dropped the container of lotion as Abby hopped up onto the bed and sprawled. Her tail swished back and forth slowly. "Well you can touch it."

Lenora fumbled with the bottle before opening it and using a little bit of it to rub onto Abby's perfectly normal looking behind. She almost jumped off the bed when she heard Gabrielle's mental voice, "You can after you're done and if she looks to be enjoying it slide your fingers around and have some fun, I don't think she'll mind."

Abby frowned as Abby froze, "Something wrong?"

Lenora shook herself then glared at Gabrielle, "Nah Gabrielle was just being naughty."

"Ah, well that's why we like her."

"Ah."


	29. To the pain

Leo Potter kept his head down and nose almost in his book as he concentrated on remaining unnoticed. He was currently curled up in a nook in the Gryffindor common room reading, while he had every right to be there he was fairly sure that if the older students really noticed him they would stop gossiping about what they were talking about or worse send him on his way. He could just barely hear the whispered conversation from the other side of the room.

"I over heard Hagrid talking to Professor Flitwick, the big guy was distraught because a number of his precious monsters were turning up dead."

Another girl's voice nervously, "Are the centaurs alright?"

"He didn't mention them, but from what I could make out over his rambling I never want to go into the forest. I can't believe they would let those monsters so close to a school."

"Well there is a reason it's called the forbidden forest. So what did they find?"

"Some large spiders, acro something."

"Acromantula?"

"Yeah, that's what he said."

"Oh my."

"Yeah them and an Augurey."

"The spiders I can understand but an Irish phoenix?"

"It had its heart ripped out and it's neck broken. Same with the banshee he found."

"Something killed a banshee? What the hell, their screams are death, how the hell could something kill one?"

"I don't know, I'm just telling you what I heard."

"Anything else weird?"

"Well not quite as strange as a banshee but I overheard something about a Graphorn before I had to make myself scarce."

"What about it?"

"Not sure other than it was possibly on the list of dead creatures."

"That makes no sense, their hides are even better than dragon hide for resisting magic, what could kill one?"

"Don't know, maybe I didn't hear him right, anyways I'm going to get ready for tomorrow's class."

Leo frowned as the girls he had been eavesdropping on left, something was out hunting in the forbidden forest, something dangerous. He would have to warn his siblings and possibly his dad about it. Maybe his dad knew something or could possibly get more information out of Hagrid without arousing suspicions.

William glanced around the almost empty common room. He chuckled when he noticed Leo curled up in the corner with a book.

Leo glanced up at his friend as he wandered over, "So what do you think of the rumors of Snape becoming the new headmaster?"

"I can't believe they would let him become the head of the school. McGonagall deserves it more as the assistant headmistress."

"Yeah but she would have to give up being the head of Gryffindor house, something I don't think she is willing to do."

"I half expected Dumbledore to be at the feast." His voice dropped to a whisper, "Even though I know he's off learning magic from wizards in a different world. Speaking of which I'm still bitter that you didn't take me. I mean come on man, a world filled with hot girls and you left your best mate?"

Leo chuckled, "You'll just have to come next time. I'm sure we can talk Rose into opening another portal at some point."

"I guess I'll have to be especially nice to her. So what are you reading anyways?"

Leo held up the book, "Just a copy of one of the magical books from the pocket world."

"Have you managed to get anything to work?"

"A couple of tiny spells. Nothing earth shattering. But still the fact that I can do them without my wand is handy."

"Do you mind if I take a look?"

Leo shrugged and handed William the book, "Nah, knock yourself out. I'm off to warn the girls about dead monsters in the forbidden forest."

William blinked, "What? Where, when?"

"I overheard some girls chattering about overhearing Hagrid saying something about some dead monsters being found. I know we shouldn't believe everything we hear but it's worth warning them just incase."

"True, speaking of unbelievable things, Gabrielle should work on her tall tales."

"Oh?"

William chuckled, "Yeah, she was saying that you had some girls chained up in your room."

Leo blushed, "Hey that wasn't my fault, they're the ones that put the chains in and…"

"You mean it's true?"

"Well not exactly no, I mean… Raven was working on an art project and… look they were just having fun."

"What? Who's Raven, I know Dad and I had to spend some time at the Burrow but that's no excuse to not share the details."

Leo blushed slightly, "Well I couldn't very well talk about it on the train, not with everyone spread out. Raven's my camera girl. Anyways do you want the long boring story or do you want to see the picture?"

William blinked, "You have pictures?"

"Well I have a couple, one of which I'll even let you see. The rest of the girls made me promise not to show the pictures around." Leo reached into his pocket and pulled a small stack of photographs out of his pocket. He searched through them with a smile then handed one of them to his friend before pulling the rest back.

As William looked at the photo his eyes went wide in shock, "What is she?"

"That would be Kyara, she's a Kitsune, or fox girl. She's a bit of a sex fiend. I'll make sure I tell her what you think."

William blinked, "She's pretty."

Leo chuckled, "Yes, though a bit needy. And you have to be careful about her tail."

"Why's that?"

"She likes to wrap it around things or hit people in the face with it, depending on what's she's feeling." Leo chuckled as William couldn't take his eyes off the photo.

"I don't suppose I could have a copy?"

"Tell you what, you can write to her and ask her." Leo chuckled as William bolted for the stairs to get his quill and ink pot.

Trista couldn't help but press against Rose as Gabrielle shared another daring and more than slightly erotic story about her adventures in the pokegirl world. She was curled up with Rose on Gabrielle's bed at Hogwarts. Gabrielle was sitting on the windowsill idly playing with one of Lenora's feet while telling them stories of her adventures. If she was being honest she was a bit sad that she had had to go home before they tested out Rose's ability to make pocket worlds. Granted judging by the stories she would have been horribly embarrassed by some things but still, it sounded oddly more relaxing than spending time listening to stories from her family about the reunion that she'd missed out on.

Lenora shook her head, "There's no way, you'll pulling our chains aren't you?"

Gabrielle smiled, "Would I do that?"

Lenora nodded, "Yes."

"Well, what about a little bet?"

Lenora shook her head, "Not going to happen, maybe you are fibbing about that and maybe you aren't but I'm not going to bet against you."

"What you don't trust me?" Gabrielle sniffled a few times before breaking out into a fit of giggles.

"Yeah no, you're the girl that used to use invisibility to cheat at hide and seek."

Trista blinked, "Wait, you cheated at hide and go seek?"

Lenora grinned, "And after we banned her from using invisibility, she used her magical powers to sense the rest of us so that she could find us easier."

Rose grinned as she ran a hand over Trista's hip, "It was totally cheating."

Gabrielle snickered, "Oh please, don't let her sound all moral and stuff, we found out later that she used to teleport around the area to avoid people finding her."

Trista chuckled, "Is that true?"

Rose grinned, "Well maybe, but they could never prove it."

Lenora sighed, "No wonder the rest of us could never win. You were both horrible."

Rose shook her head, "As if we're the only ones that liked trouble. You and Lillian are a bunch of pranksters."

Lenora grinned, "Oh please, where is your proof?"

Rose grinned, "One of these days."

Gabrielle frowned as she looked over her shoulder out the window at the clear night, "It's going to snow soon."

Rose frowned, "I'm just glad that we don't have to take care of magical creatures until third year."

Trista sighed, "I don't know, it might be sort of fun learning about dangerous creatures. I mean I would ace the werewolf chapter."

Rose leaned in and planted a kiss on her cheek, "I think we all would."

"So you going to tell us any more stories?"

Gabrielle grinned, "Well it's not like you believe me anyways."

Rose rolled her eyes, "Well try us."

"Well there was that one night where I got to walk Sarah around naked on a leash, that was a great night. You should have been there, so much fun."

Rose blinked, "She never mentioned that."

"You know what the best part was?"

Trista shook her head, "What?"

"The way the air made her nipples stand out."

Lenora chuckled, "And on that note we should probably get some sleep."

Trista shook her head, "How am I supposed to get to sleep after that?"

Rose chuckled as she helped Trista to her feet and led her back to her bed, "I'm sure we'll find a way."

Lenora chuckled after Rose left, "So how's it feel to have your own bed back?"

Gabrielle shrugged, "Not sure, it would be a damn shame if I had to get used to sleeping all alone again."

Lenora smiled as she gently pulled her foot out of Gabrielle's grasp and slid under the covers. "Yeah a damn shame, now get in here."

Gabrielle chuckled as she slid off the windowsill and under the covers with Lenora. "So did you enjoy your vacation snuggling with Lillian?"

Lenora chuckled as she hit Gabrielle with a pillow, "Get some sleep perv."

"I'm not hearing any denials."

Lenora leaned against Gabrielle as she tried to drift off to sleep.

A number of the teachers were more than a little worried as the weeks stretched on without Dumbledore. Officially Professor McGonagall had been named to the temporary position of acting headmaster as Dumbledore was supposedly off on a health sabbatical, unofficially most of the staff thought he was off tracking down leads for combating Voldemort. The Daily Prophet had had a field day with that one. By the third week a sense of hopelessness and fear was crippling the hearts of most of the students, the fear was so bad as the weeks continued that the school had been checked repeatedly for signs of dementors, of course no sign of the creatures had been found. Even some of the normally ever brave Gryffindors were starting to feel the creeping fear. Every morning as the owls made their way into the great hall the fear would spike as people held their breath. Everyone muggle and pureblood alike were now worried that maybe the next letter from home would be news of a relative's death or dismemberment. It was perhaps worse for the Slytherins who were unused to worrying quite so much about random disappearances. Whole families were vanishing, most with the dark mark prominently displayed over the property, though some just looked to have up and left. Why just last week Pansy Parkinson's family home had been burned to the ground. The dark mark having been spotted by dozens of witnesses. Prefects were having to spend almost all of their free time patrolling the corridors just to keep fights from breaking out, as Gryffindors and Slytherins accused each side of offing their family members. A number of Slytherin students were pulled from class before vanishing with their families to parts unknown.

McGonagall knew the order was doing their best relocating as many of the parents of the muggle born as they could but they were helpless to save them all. There had already been several deaths, some just hours before they could get to them. The ministry was at its wits end dealing with the sheer number of reports of suspicious activity. Personally she was fairly sure at least half the complaints were coming from death eaters themselves in an attempt to cripple the ministry even more as they tried to solidify a weakening position. Apparently tensions were so high that the obliviators were having to work double shifts just to deal with the sheer number of magical accidents witnessed by muggles. According to Bill even the goblins were in an uproar about the number of wizards pulling their gold out of Gringotts. She just hoped the current conflict didn't rip the school apart. She was personally glad that Harry and his friends were doing a good job with his dueling club, it gave the students something to focus on other than the fear of losing loved ones.

Gabrielle sighed as she looked around the school at the half empty tables. She hadn't thought that removing a few dozen death eaters would cause such a reaction in the student body. It's not that she really cared about the death eaters but she felt a little bad that several of the students now had missing parents. Most of them weren't the nicest kids in the world though so she didn't feel too bad about things. Of course she was rather happy as that meant she would be able to bring several dozen pokegirls back from the pokegirl world. It wasn't like her Mother, Uncle Xander and Lexie weren't interviewing them to make sure they deserved to be banished to another world. It had started out as a simple plan, capture some of the people dad knew to be death eaters and use mind magic on them to get them to reveal the names and locations of other people in their organization. None of them had expected just how widespread the corruption had gone though. She was more than a little appalled at the number of connections the death eaters had in the ministry. It was probably because too many "pure" bloods were in positions of power even though they weren't the best wizards for the job. She had to force herself to smile as her friends chatted over breakfast. She wasn't even sure why she was here other than her mother's refusal to let her run around attacking death eaters during the school year. During the holidays she could come along on missions but according to her mother school was too important. She wanted to groan, she liked school but being years ahead meant most of her classes were a joke. At least the only class she loathed was history. She had to force herself every time she walked into that classroom and Binns started droning on and on about some stupid goblin rebellion that happened more than a hundred years ago to not reach out with her magic and rip the last of his life force away. Sadly that urge was getting a bit more common as the weeks passed.

Rose frowned, "What's got you snarling this morning?"

"Just thinking about the pointlessness of certain things."

"Anything you want to share?"

Gabrielle chuckled somewhat darkly, "Nah." She tossed a thought to Rose, 'At least not out loud. I'm just a bit annoyed that we have to waste our time in class with stuff we already know when we could be helping hunt down death eaters.'

'You know as well as I do that the parents aren't going to let us actually go on a real death eater hunt. At least not one where we don't have the advantage.'

"Pass the salt please."

Rose pointed at the salt and used a touch of magic to slide it across the table.

Gabrielle smiled, "Thanks." 'Yeah but that doesn't mean we can't view anything we get to do as practice.'

Everyone around the Gryffindor table gasped in shock as a large owl flew in with a midnight black envelope bearing the ministry's seal clutched in it's talons. Everyone held their breath as it flew over the various tables until it dropped the envelope right in the middle of Ron's empty plate. "There's got to be some mistake." Ron's hands trembled as he opened the letter and started reading.

"It is our sad duty to inform you of a tragic death in the Weasley family. One Percival Weasley is regrettably no longer with us. We extend our deepest regret for his loss and appreciation for his many years of devoted service.

Madame FancyPants

Bureau of Correspondence

Ministry of Magic."

Helen pulled her coat tighter against the rain with one hand as she kept her other hand wrapped tightly around her elemental rifle. "You know that last joke wasn't funny don't you?"

Xander had to stifle a chuckle, "Everyone's a critic."

"So when are you going to tell me why we are up on this roof freezing our asses off watching death eaters when we could be back home enjoying a nice roaring fire."

"You're the one that wanted to get away from the house." Xander smiled as he watched a drenched wizard across the street duck into the building they were watching. If he had to be soaked to the skin by the rain it was only fair that the death eaters experience some annoyance.

"Yeah well, shoot me if I don't enjoy a house filled with practical jokers."

"Best holiday ever. As for why we are up here today of all days, last week we caught Amycus Carrow. Real rat of a human by the way. Anyways he was very helpful in supplying information on the rest of the death eaters in a deal to save his life."

"So he gave up the dirt on this place? I'm guessing it's his house?"

"Yeah not much to look at is it? Anyways he swore an unbreakable vow to help us in exchange for his life."

"So other than information what did you get out of him?"

"Ever since Malfoy manor was lost to him as a base we were fairly sure that Voldeshit has been swapping locations every few days, Amycus was nice enough to confirm it. Being that he is trying to stay one step ahead of the ministry and that the number of loyal death eaters was growing smaller we knew it was just a matter of time for them to end up here."

"Okay so we know they are in there, how does that help us? There has to be dozens of wards on the place that would prevent people from interrupting them."

Xander chuckled, "Normally it wouldn't, the shear number of wards would give them enough time to portkey out. However we arranged for some work to be done to the house last week."

"Construction work?"

"Yep, some special home modifications."

"So that's where you've been this last week."

"Yeah, basically."

"So are you going to tell me what you did?"

"Nah, I would rather show you." Xander adjusted his ear muffs so they were over his ears then pulled a small muggle remote out of his pocket, "Oh and shoot any of the death eaters that make it outside."

Helen quickly jammed her own ear muffs over her ears as a crazily grinning Xander happily flipped the switch on his remote.

Voldemort was angry, not even torturing the night's muggle to death had done much to relieve his anger, it should have been a glorious time. Dumbledore was gone from Hogwarts, according to several of the children of his death eaters the amount of fear there was immense and growing. His army of giants were ready to squash Hogwarts at his command. He would have been more than happy to give that command if not for his recent setbacks. It had all started to go horribly wrong with Malfoy and that disastrous attempt on Potter's Mudblood bitch of a friend. He had lost so many loyal death eaters in a single swoop, it had shaken the resolve of the rest. Understandable perhaps but inconvenient none the less. The amount of lost death eaters would have been salvageable if they hadn't lost another group to yet another one of Malfoy's plots. If he ever found Malfoy he would kill him slowly. No the real reason he was in a rage was the dismembered corpse of Yaxley that had shown up in a dirty cardboard box at the last meeting. Not because he cared what happened to the guy but the work he had been doing at the ministry had been important. It looked like someone had ripped him limb from limb then ripped his heart out while he was still alive. The look dread frozen on the severed head's face had been rather impressive. Something or someone was hunting his death eaters. It was unthinkable but the evidence was overwhelming. He would have to personally track down this menace and destroy it.

Snape was more than a bit displeased to be playing host to Voldemort and the rest of the death eaters. Of course had he not, thanks to one of the Red Witch's spells, had his consciousness stuffed inside the body of Amycus Carrow he would have been killed on sight. Still he was rather annoyed that he had been forced to play nice and pour wine for Voldemort's sniveling group of idiots all night wearing Amycus's ugly face. Even grading the children's stupid papers was looking better than this farce. It was with great relief that he finally spotted his chance to end the torment. He smiled as he as discreetly as he could in a room filled with dark wizards cast the killing charm on Voldemort's snake. Sadly the little act of rebellion didn't go unnoticed though the person's shock allowed Snape enough time to twist the ring on his finger sending off a magical signal before he was slammed with body bind spells from all sides. He smiled as he felt his puppet's body being tossed in front of an enraged Voldemort. He was just happy that he couldn't feel the full impact of Voldemort's shouted crucio curse.

Voldemort couldn't believe, couldn't understand why one of his loyal death eaters would kill his snake, "Why?"

Snape twisted Amycus's face up into a smile, "Because you murdered a girl, and because as much as I hate myself for saying this, Potter is right you're a chicken shit."

Voldemort's response was lost as everything exploded in flame.

Xander grinned despite the ringing in his ears, he was just happy that he had put the ear muffs on. He snuck a peek over the wall he had hid behind. He smiled as he took in the devastation and the now mostly empty though smoking lot, "Best damn April fool's day ever."

Helen winced as she pulled at her own ear muffs, "What?"

"I said best damn explosion ever."

"You know Snape was inside right?"

Xander chuckled, "Details."


	30. Epilog and thoughts

Snape groaned as he awoke. He reached up and ran a hand over what was thankfully his own face. He glanced over at the smirking man at the table. "I'm not doing that again any time soon."

Xander chuckled, "Hey you're the one that wanted to see snake face's expression when we blew up the building. Small price to pay to be sure he's dead."

Snape nodded absently as he pulled himself to his feet and looked around the cheap muggle hotel room. "You couldn't find a nicer place while we waited for the heat to die down?"

"Hey, it was the only place I could find close enough to the site to not chance losing your soul that didn't have cameras. Besides it's not like I had any idea when you would wake up. Willow said it could be anywhere from several minutes to several hours. I would have just taken a portkey but Willow told me not to use magical transportation until you stabilized a bit. She went into great and long boring detail about the reasons but she lost me shortly after displaced souls and bad things happening."

Snape wasn't really a fan of just sitting around doing nothing but he also wasn't a fan of dieing either. "Are you going to hunt down the rest of the death eaters?"

Xander shrugged, "Depends on what else happens. With Professor McGonagall signing off on allowing the gang to take their newts a year early, we might just leave. Not sure, it sort of depends on what the kids want to do. I can't really see them wanting to stay but it's always possible. So what about you?"

"What about me?"

"You going back to teaching?"

"It doesn't really appeal to me as much as it used to. I might actually take Miss. Rosenberg up on her offer of relocation. A new start where I don't have to worry about a bunch of crazy students blowing themselves up sounds nice right now."

Xander couldn't help but chuckle.

In another part of London hidden from all manor of normal people one Percy Weasley sat sipping a cup of tea in the back room of a notorious joke shop. "You know, I'm going to miss working for the ministry." At Fred's raised eyebrow he shrugged, "Alright not all that much."

George chuckled, "You know the one barmy part of all of this?"

"The fact that I faked my own death?"

"Nah, while it was a brilliant piece of spell work, it was quite within your skills. No what surprises me was that you didn't bother to inform Ron of your plans first. I heard he almost had a heart attack when he received the notice of your death on April Fool's day."

Percy shrugged as he tried hard to keep the smile from his face, "Well clearly as I have according to everyone no sense of humor it was just an oversight. I should get back to the Burrow though, spend some time with the family before slipping off to my new posting in America."

Fred nodded, "Yeah mum would like that."

Percy nodded, "Oh I almost forgot, here." He pulled an envelope out of his pocket and set it on the table. "Happy birthday." He smiled as he tapped his watch and vanished with a small crack.

Fred tapped the envelope several times with his wand to check for traps before opening the envelope.

George looked at his twin with concern, "What's up?"

Fred just shook his head, "The… I can't… no, no way, didn't happen."

George frowned as he reached over and pulled the card from his brother's hands. He was more than a little shocked to see several pictures of Ron's shocked face upon receiving the notification of Percy's death. But in order for there to be a picture let alone several, that would mean that someone else had been warned ahead of time to watch for it. George joined his brother in shock, he had almost forgotten the last time Percy had told a joke. It had been years and years, so long in fact that they had long since given up on him actually having a sense of humor.

Willow smiled as a rain soaked Helen appeared in the designated portkey area. "So how are the boys?"

"Doing fine, Xander's tormenting grumpy pants with bad jokes and planning out the next few moves for finishing off the death eaters." She tossed her hat on the hat rack and hung her coat on the coat rack.

"Dobby and Morrigan made some breakfast if you're interested."

"That and a hot shower sounds really nice right now, you'd be surprised how soaked you get in a London downpour crossing the street let alone waiting on a roof top for a signal."

Willow chuckled, "Well I don't think you're going to melt from a little water."

"Well I always assumed that was a witch's job." She turned with a smirk and walked out.

Willow let her lips curve up slightly as she watched the young lady walk from the room. "Nah, just the evil ones." She chuckled as she heard a soft "Yeah, right." from down the hall.

Dawn looked up from her book as Willow walked in with a slight smile on her face. "I'm guessing by the smile on your face that we won?"

Willow chuckled weakly, "It's a bit early to tell but from what I heard from Helen things went well."

Dawn watched her wife's face fall, "And yet you're not breaking out the bubbly."

"You know there was a time when I would be appalled at us for blowing up so many humans, I should be appalled but I'm not. I'm starting to wonder if we're slipping."

Dawn held up her index finger and thumb just a touch apart, "Maybe just a little. It's sort of like Giles, you can't do the job we do for all the years we have and not slip a little. He's a great guy but he can be a little scary, especially when something threatens one of his girls. I've given a lot of thought to things over the years, we aren't champions Willow, we never were, that was always Buffy's thing, a slayer thing. People like us, like Xander we don't have it in us." She shook her head when Willow opened her mouth presumably to start to defend Xander, "He's got too big of a heart to let little things like divine will or pesky laws of the world keep him from doing everything to protect his friends. Anyways we aren't like the slayers, they fight because they were called to fight it's in their nature they can't help it. We on the other hand fight because we choose to. We don't have the same level of faith that things will work out, that some vampire isn't going to pull a gun and cut the slayer down like a rational creature rather than fight them with those crazy martial arts moves they always seem to know. So maybe we are going to slip now and then but so what, each of those people were worse than demons, it's better that they're dead."

"You know I still don't understand where they pick up the crazy moves, maybe we can ask Giles again."

"You just want to see him rub his glasses."

"Even after all these years it still makes everything better. He rubs the glasses then comes up with a brilliant plan and everything is right again with the world."

"I don't know if the glass rubbing is enough to fix it this time."

"Ice cream?"

Dawn chuckled, "You know maybe we are losing it but some of Helen's ice cream sounds just about perfect right now."

Willow chuckled, "We'll even if you haven't gotten more evil you've certainly gotten more perverted over the years."

Dawn chuckled, "Well I did marry two cute girls that enjoy it and I've got to be honest spending time with Anya hasn't really helped with having a normal sense of humor."

"Your sense of humor such as it is, was never normal."

"Hey now, keep this up and I might have to steal your ice cream."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, I know where you keep your diary and I have a scanner."

Dawn shivered, "That's dirty, I'm sure there is enough ice cream to go around."

Willow chuckled, "So when do we get to tell Buffy what exactly the ice cream she loves so much is made out of?"

Dawn chuckled, "How about the 13th of Never? Or maybe when she's in a different dimension where she can't kill us in our sleep?"

And as happens from time to time the days turned to weeks and the weeks turned to months and before he knew it the end of the term had come and gone. He wasn't sure how to feel about this being his last day at Hogwarts. Gabrielle, Rose, William, Lenora, Lillian and him had all taken the O.W.L.s. He was even fairly sure they had all passed, though they would have to wait until later to find out for sure. It had started as a joke between him and Gabrielle but the more they had talked the more they decided to go for it. They weren't really all that interested in continuing at Hogwarts especially not with Trista's continuing education looking questionable not to mention their parents finishing a year early. Apparently not even Umbridge's death had stopped the rampant anti-werewolf regulations the ministry had been pushing for the last several years. Leo would have thought that having Voldemort presumed dead and the death eaters broken would have stopped that type of crap. Sadly it just meant that the ministry in a bid to be seen as doing something important pushed even harder against anything that wasn't purely human. He glanced around the Gryffindor common room, despite having only spent a school year here it still felt a little like saying goodbye to a trusted friend. He had to admit that he had had some good times here, even if there were some bad, mostly dealing with the Slytherins, still it had been home. He smiled as he hummed the Hogwarts' school song on his way to the train.

Lenora watched the castle pass from view with a sense of bitter sweetness, she was happy to get back to her life at home but still she was going to miss several of the people at Hogwarts. She would miss McGonagall's no nonsense lectures and firm if stern support. She would also miss never having played on the Gryffindor quidditch team, that alone had almost been enough to get them to stay. Hell William had almost cried when he had realized that. It had been a little bit funny.

Lillian smiled as Hogwarts fled from view, she knew she would miss some things but other than Luna who she was planning on seeing again she wasn't going to miss the rest of the students. She was forced to admit that her twin had been right about being smarter having not ended up in Ravenclaw. Most of them were a bunch of pretentious pricks that really weren't half as smart as they thought they were. She wasn't going to mess much about Hogwarts other than maybe her charms professor and head of house.

William wasn't sure if he was making the right choice but he would take his chances with Leo and his siblings. They were usually a lot more interesting than the students at Hogwarts had proven to be. Honestly he was looking forward to being done with school work at least for the summer.

Gabrielle sighed wistfully as she watched Hogwarts vanish around the bend, she was going to miss the place in some ways. The feeling of the magic was unique, the age, the history of the place screamed out to her, even though she knew it wasn't real, it felt real. She would miss her walks at night in the forbidden forest. She wasn't quite sure if she would miss the actual walks or just the easy source of magical powers more, but miss them she would. She'd even miss the giant squid in the lake. Her eyes sparkled with purple fire as she gazed out over the landscape, "Homeward bound."

~An: It's been an interesting story to write. But as the girls end their Hogwarts adventures the story comes to a close. I plan to continue the characters in my other story but for now I think I'll just mark this as completed. Thanks to everyone that stuck with this story through all the twists turns and contortions.


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